Insurgent strike kills 5 children in escalating battle in Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria — Insurgents fired rockets into a government-held Christian town in northwestern Syria on Sunday, killing six people, including five children who were playing near a monastery and wounding several others, state media and a local priest said.
State TV said the shelling caused widespread damage to the town of Suqailabiyah. It said the dead also included a 35-year-old woman.
State news agency SANA said Syrian troops retaliated by firing shells toward insurgents’ positions on the southern edge of Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is the main insurgent group in the area.
Priest Maher Haddad said by telephone from Suqailabiyah that a rocket struck near a group of children, instantly killing five and wounding others. He said the woman was killed in a nearby street by a separate rocket.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the government shelling of a rebel-held village to the north killed one person and wounded others.
The insurgent enclave has been rocked by a wave of violence since April 30, killing and wounding dozens while forcing some 150,000 people to flee their homes in rebel-held areas. Idlib is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of the country.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive under the cover of air strikes for days, capturing several strategic locations and villages.
Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue are Associated Press writers.