At least 28 dead in strike on Syria refugee camp, activists say

An airstrike on Thursday hit a crowded refugee camp in Syria close to the border with Turkey, killing at least 28 people, according to Syrian pro-opposition activists. Images posted on social media, said to be of the aftermath of the strike, showed at least a dozen tents burned to the ground and bloodied women and children being loaded onto a pickup truck.

The camp in Sarmada, in rebel-held territory the northwestern Idlib province, is home to between 1,500 and 2,000 internally displaced people who fled the fighting from the surrounding Aleppo and Hama provinces over the last year, according to activist Mohammad Shafie in the town of Atareb, about 7.5 miles from the camp.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 28 died, but the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said more than 30 were killed. Images on social media showed charred bodies and men pouring buckets of water on fires that erupted within the camp.

The attack came just hours after a twin bombing in the central province of Homs killed at least 10 people and wounded scores, state media and the regional governor, Talal Barrazi, said. A car bomb first exploded in the main square of village of Mukharam al-Fawkani, located about 28 miles east of the central city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest.

As people gathered to help the victims, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle detonated his explosives belt nearby, authorities said. Four children and three women were among those killed, Syrian state TV said, and as many as 49 were wounded in the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Islamic State group has claimed to be behind several similar deadly attacks in Homs province. The area of the blasts is close to where Syrian troops and Islamic State gunmen have been fighting for control of the vital Shaer gas field, which fell to Islamic State on Wednesday after the extremists overran 13 government checkpoints and captured a Syrian soldier. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 34 government troops and 16 militants have been killed in three days of fighting there.

Meanwhile, relative calm prevailed in the northern city of Aleppo, which has been the center of violence in recent weeks, following a truce announced the day before by U.S. officials in agreement with Russia -- an effort to extend Syria’s fragile cease-fire to the deeply contested city. The Syrian military said the truce would last 48 hours.

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Syrian state media reported some violations of the truce in Aleppo, saying militants fired more than 20 shells into government-held parts of the city, where 280 civilians have been killed over the last two weeks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights . The activist group said Thursday’s shelling killed one person.

Also Thursday, renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev led the Mariinsky Orchestra from St. Petersburg in a concert at the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, badly damaged by Islamic State extremists who held the town for 10 months before Syrian troops captured it under the cover of Russian airstrikes in March.

The concert, dubbed “With a Prayer for Palmyra,” was to support the restoration of the UNESCO world heritage site and in honor of the victims of Syria’s war. It was held in the town’s amphitheater, and the audience included Russian servicemen and combat engineers who have been doing demining work in the town to remove bombs left by Islamic State militants.

In opening remarks, Gergiev said that with the concert, “we protest against the barbarians who destroyed monuments of world culture.”

There was also a video linkup in which Putin addressed the audience, saying he regards the concert “as a sign of gratitude, remembrance and hope.”

Elsewhere, a salvo of rockets struck southern Turkey from Syrian territory, wounding four people, Turkey’s state-run agency said. The Anadolu Agency said three rockets hit the Turkish town of Kilis early Thursday.

The rockets were fired from Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria, according to the private Dogan News agency. It said one policeman was among the wounded. The agency carried photographs of damaged buildings and vehicles.

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Such incidents have become a regular occurrence in the border town, which is home to a significant Syrian refugee population. Cross-border fire has left 20 people dead and dozens of others wounded this year.

The Turkish military typically fires back in line with its rules of engagement, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Islamic State on Wednesday that no attack on Turkey would go unanswered.

A Lebanese TV station embedded with the Syrian army said Syrian rebels are waging an offensive on a government-held village south of the city of Aleppo. Al Mayadeen TV, broadcasting live from near the fighting, said armed groups launched their assault for Khan Touman earlier in the afternoon on Thursday.

The TV says government jets are bombing rebel positions outside the village. Bomb blasts are seen in the station’s feed from the hilly countryside.

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