Air strikes kill 26, mostly children in Syria's Idlib: rescuers, monitor

Air strikes by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed at least 26 people, most of them school children, in a village in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Wednesday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said. The raids hit a residential area and a school in Haas village, the Syrian Civil Defence rescue workers network said on its Facebook account. Syria's civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite Muslim militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan against an array of mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.