31 killed as Syrian government plane crashes in Idlib-Activists
The incident took place in Ariha, an area which was captured from the government by rebels, including the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front, in May.
“There were heavy raids on the area of Ariha before the Syrian warplane went down in the centre of the city,” said Rami Abel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory said among the killed were two children.
It added that 60 wounded, some critically, were being treated in a makeshift hospital. The watchdog said among the dead five people remained unidentified.
Video footage released by activists showed chaos and much destruction at the scene.
The footage showed a wing of what seemed to be a warplane with the Syrian flag on it, as well as emergency responders searching among the rubble for missing people.
Activists in the area said the plane exploded with the remaining bombs it was carrying which caused the heavy damage and high casualties.
There was no confirmation as of yet from the Syrian government, but the official news agency SANA reported that army units had destroyed an ammunition warehouse and attacked “terrorist groups” in Ariha.
There was no indication yet if the plane crash was the result of a technical problem or whether it was shot down.
Activists said that the fate of the pilot is still unknown.
Ariha is controlled mainly by the al-Qaeda-linked al Nusra Front and other hardline Islamist brigades.
On January 18, at least 35 government troops were killed when a military cargo plane crashed in Idlib because of bad weather, hitting electricity lines in heavy fog.