Dozens Killed as Airstrike Hits North Syria Refugee Camp

Reports Differ on Who Launched Attack on Idlib Camp

Reports from a refugee camp in the northern Syrian province of Idlib suggest dozens of civilians were killed today, 28 according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, when the camp was hit by an airstrike. 50 others were said to be wounded.

Details are still emerging, and so far it is unclear who launched the airstrike that hit the camp, with some rebel factions claiming the Syrian military did so, and others blaming the Russians. There has been no claim of responsibility.

The Idlib camp is just 4 km away from the Turkish border. The province is held overwhelmingly by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, and its takeover of the province, along with expected offensives to take it back, have fueled an exodus of displaced people trying to get to Turkey, and mostly ended up in camps along the border.

The White House issued a condemnation of the attack, saying that the targeting of refugees was unjustified. Their statement, similarly, did not attempt to assign blame to any specific party however, and just days after the US shrugged off its own attack on an Afghan hospital as not a war crime by virtue of being “not intentional,” it would be difficult for them to condemn today’s attack too hard without evidence that the strike was deliberately aimed at the camp.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.