Three separate attacks on busy marketplaces in Syria resulted in a death toll of 19 people, 12 of whom were children. In Idlib, airstrikes killed 9 people in the Maarat al-Numan marketplace, according to a volunteer rescue group named the White Helmets. At least four of the dead were children according to the Syrian American Medical Society, and footage released by the White Helmets show members carrying bodies away from the scene. The White Helmets claim that the attack was perpetrated by the administration of Bashar al-Assad. Hours after the attack in Idlib, a separate attack killed eight more children and two adults in the town of Tal Rifaat.
UNICEF reported that yesterday’s attacks bring the number of children killed in northern Syria to at least 34 in just four weeks. The children killed in Tal Rifaat were between 3 and 15 years old, according to a local rights group called Human Rights of Afrin. The eight-year-long civil war in Syria has resulted in 400,000 fatalities and millions displaced since it began in 2011.
Read More: 12 children killed in ‘bloodiest of days’ in northwest Syria