Syria: Regime airstrikes kill 30, including seven students

DAMASCUS

The Syrian regime air force killed 18 civilians, including seven students Thursday in northern Syria’s Aleppo and Idlib provinces, opposition said.

A missile fired by a regime jet allegedly targeted a school in Armanaz village in Idlib that left three teachers and seven students dead, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said in a statement.

Many students were also wounded in the attack and the school’s building also sustained heavy damage.

Also, a regime helicopter targeted opposition-controlled Kadi Askar area in Aleppo that left at least 20 civilians dead and scores others injured, the commission said.

The attack also caused severe damage to the residential area.

The commission represents a unified coalition of Syrian opposition groups that aims to establish a democratic government in Syria.

Khoja meets Hollande

Syrian National Coalition President Khaled Khoja and French President Francois Hollande met Thursday and agreed that removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime from power is the key to countering terrorism in Syria and the only way for any international peace initiative to succeed.

Khoja told reporters that it is "quiet hard" to accept the plan suggested by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura as "the Syrian regime keeps breaching all the international peace initiatives." 

De Mistura had been working on an action plan he announced in October 2014 which envisaged establishing a special "freeze" zone in Aleppo in which fighting would stop, leading to the delivery of humanitarian aid and the build-up of the political process at a local level.

"This initiative should be improved in a way that ensures the end of the killings and bloodshed in all Syrian regions," Khoja said.

Hollande said in a statement that "Assad bears the responsibility for the misery of his people and the rise of terrorist groups in Syria."

Syria has been gripped by violence since the Assad regime launched a violent crackdown in response to anti-government protests in March 2011, triggering a conflict that has left at least 210,000 people dead.

As many as 3.8 million Syrian refugees are registered in neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, according to the UN.