Director of children’s agency says it is possibly the deadliest attack on a school since the start of the war more than five years ago
A wounded Syrian boy receives treatment at a make-shift hospital following reported government shelling on the rebel-held town of Douma. Pic/AFP
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United Nations: Air strikes that hit a school in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province killed 22 children and six teachers, the UNICEF has said.
“This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if deliberate, it is a war crime,” UNICEF director Anthony Lake said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “warplanes — either Russia or Syrian — carried out six strikes” in the village of Hass, including on a school complex.
Lake said that the compound of the school premises was “repeatedly attacked”, adding that it may be the deadliest attack on a school since the war began more than five years ago.
A photograph circulated on social media showed a child’s arm, seared off above the elbow, still clutching the strap of a dusty black rucksack.
“When will the world’s revulsion at such barbarity be matched by insistence that this must stop?” added the UNICEF director.
Asked about the attack, Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin responded: “It’s horrible, horrible. I hope we were not involved.”
“It’s easy for me to say ‘no’ but I’m a responsible person. I need to see what our minister of defence is going to say,” he told reporters.
Syrian government forces and their Russian ally have been accused by Western powers and rights groups of carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure. More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria and over half of the country’s population displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Raqqa offensive soon?
The offensive to drive the IS from its Raqqa stronghold in Syria will begin in the next few weeks, top US and British defence officials said yesterday.
“It will be within weeks, not many weeks,” US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters at a two-day NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels.
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