At least 16 people died after a Friday night air strike on a prison in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province including both prisoners and staff, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said on Saturday.
Idlib is one of the most important strongholds of rebels, including militant factions, who seek to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, whose air force, along with that of his ally Russia, has been heavily bombarding insurgents there.
The population of Idlib, located in north-west Syria, has been swelled by refugees including many of those who have left rebel-held enclaves elsewhere in the country after the army and its allies forced them to surrender.
While parts of Idlib are controlled by Turkey-backed rebels, including factions who fight under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, other areas are dominated by the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and others by the Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance.
Tahrir al-Sham’s strongest component is the former Nusra Front group which was al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria until last year when it broke formal ties with the global movement.
