Air raids on Syrian market kill 34 civilians

Syrian government air strikes on a marketplace Sunday killed at least 34 civilians, including women and children, in a rebel-held town near the border with Turkey, a monitoring group said.

The strikes on Darkush came a day after rebels seized Jisr al-Shughur, another town some 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the south and in the same province of Idlib.

"At least 34 civilians were killed in regime air strikes on a market in the town of Darkush, among the dead were nine women and a number of children," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The toll is expected to rise because there are dozens of people injured and many in serious condition," he told AFP.

Jisr al-Shughur was one of the regime's last remaining strongholds in the northwestern province, and its fall has left government-held territory elsewhere in neighbouring Latakia and Hama provinces open to new attack.

Earlier on Sunday, regime war planes carried out dozens of strikes on Jisr al-Shughur, which was captured by a coalition of groups including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

The same coalition captured the city of Idlib last month, making it only the second provincial capital to fall from government control.