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Death toll rises to 35 after Russian strikes hit school in Aleppo

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The death toll has risen to 35, including 20 children, for Russian air strikes at a school in Syria's Aleppo province on Monday, monitor and activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the strike in the town of Anjara also injured at least 20 people, all of them children and teachers.

Russian warplanes have conducted at least 50 raids on Monday, pounding towns of the northern and western countryside.

SOHR said there had been heavy air strikes and clashes between government and rebel forces since Sunday in the northern province, which is controlled by a mixture of moderate and Islamist rebels.

The Britain-based monitor also reported that three children were killed by rebel rocket fire on a government-held district in Aleppo city.

Control of the city has been divided between regime forces in the west and rebel fighters in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.

Regime forces regularly carry out air raids on the east, while rebels fire rockets into the west.

The situation is largely reversed in the countryside surrounding the city, with rebels controlling much of the area west of Aleppo, and the government present to the east.


Over 1,700 civilians  killed by Russia


The main opposition bloc, the Syrian National Coalition, said in a report released on Saturday that it had documented the deaths of 1,730 civilians due to Russian air strikes since their launch in September 2015.

At least 135 children were among those killed, the coalition said, adding that over 29 hospitals were destroyed in the strikes, in addition to schools, homes and places of worship.

In a statement, the coalition called on the UN Security Council "to assume its responsibilities towards Russians' continued violation of international and humanitarian laws".

The statement also said that "Russia's claim of fighting terrorism is a pretext to justify its aggression on Syria, which was clear from day one when its air force committed massacres against civilians.

"Nearly 94 percent of the 12,000 sorties the Russian air force has so far flown in Syria targeted civilians and the Free Syrian Army."

Russia's defence ministry denied in December 2015 that it targets civilians in its air strikes after an Amnesty International report accused it of doing so.

Russia says its target is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and other "terrorists", adding that the report was biased and contained ungrounded claims.

Speaking to journalists, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the report contained "trite cliches" and "fake information".

Also, in Aleppo, Syrian rebels took ground on Sunday from ISIS in near the Turkish border, field commander told Zaman al-Wasl.

Rebels have captured towns of Qura Cobri, Qura Mazra'a and al-Kherba which had been controlled by ISIS two weeks ago.

Omar Kassouma, field commander of Sultan Ibrahim Division, said the clashes are still ongoing between rebels and the Islamic State fighters in Ghazel town at the Turkish border.

Rebels' big challenge is the large number of landmines planted by ISIS around territory its controls, Kassouma said

More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests. (With agencies)

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