Air strikes kill at least 44 in Syria's Idlib

“War planes, which are likely Russian, targeted the village of Zardana in northern rural Idlib overnight and caused the highest death toll in a single attack on the region including 11 women and six children,” Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the Britain-based war monitor said.

Rescue workers were still searching under the rubble for survivors.

The northwestern Idlib region remains the largest populated area of Syria in the hands of insurgents fighting the Damascus government.

In recent years, tens of thousands of fighters and civilians have fled there from parts of the country which the army has recaptured with the help of Russia and Iran.