Bomb attack kills dozens, 4 aid workers are released
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A CAR bomb killed at least 27 people in a rebel-held area of northwestern Syria yesterday as suspected jihadists freed four out of seven aid workers kidnapped in the increasingly volatile region.
The bombing and Sunday’s kidnapping — both carried out in Idlib province, where rebels hold vast swaths of territory — underscored the descent into chaos in several rebel-held areas, which have seen a recent spate of internal clashes, kidnappings and other attacks.
The US meanwhile stepped up its calls for a peace conference between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and the increasingly divided rebels, talks rejected by a leading faction of the Western-backed opposition.
The blast in the town of Darkush killed at least three children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were in serious condition.
Activists said the blast targeted the market area of the town, which is a few kilometers from the border with Turkey, on the Orontes river.
Four of the kidnapped aid workers were meanwhile freed “safe and sound” yesterday, Red Cross spokesman Ewan Watson said, adding the group was awaiting further information about the others.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said the six members of the International Committee of the Red Cross and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent were kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaida-linked rebel group.
The ICRC has not commented on the nationality of those abducted, though it had earlier said most of the group were Syrian. There has been no claim of responsibility.
Rebels control large swathes of Idlib.
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