Deaths reported amid warplane crash in Syria

Monitor says more than 20 killed in Ariha, in Idlib province, at site of government air raids and subsequent jet crash.

Government air raids in a northwestern town in Syria and a subsequent crash of a government warplane have killed more than 20 people, according to a monitoring group.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear how many of the dead were from the crash at a residential area in Ariha, in Idlib province, and how many from the prior bombardment.

"It was flying at a low altitude when it had a mechanical failure," Rami Abdel Rahman, the Syrian Observatory's head, said, citing medical officials and residents inside the town.

At least 23 people, including two children, were killed. Five of them have not been identified."

Abdel Rahman said at least 70 people were wounded. "Six people are still under the rubble, and we don't know if they are alive or dead," he said.

Residents cited by the Syrian Observatory said the plane had crashed near a vegetable market, causing "a huge blast".

The Syrian Observatory, which relies on a wide network of activists, medics, and fighters throughout Syria, said the fate of the pilot was unknown.

Air-power monopoly

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said it was not immediately clear whether the plane was shot down.

It said 27 people were killed and many others were wounded.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad has relied heavily on its monopoly of air power in the four-year-old civil war, repeatedly bombing opposition-held towns.