(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – At least 90 persons were killed in airstrikes on the rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo in Syria on Saturday and Sunday, hours after the US and Russia announced a new ceasefire plan.

An activist who witnessed the bombing and its aftermath revealed, “The worst strikes were in Idlib, where at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in an attack that targeted a crowded market,” adding that, “We heard a whistling sound then the explosions, and the jets arrived around 12:30 p.m. local time.”

“Two or three rockets landed in middle of the market. We carried 30 people dead from the ground and transferred some other 40 injured,” he said.

The activist added, “Those injured, they were clear and visible on the ground and not hidden behind cars or inside rubble, then we carried them and started taking them to field hospitals. This is when the civil defense rescue teams started arriving and carrying and helping the injured as well the ones trapped under the rubble.”

The airstrikes came just days before a ceasefire that is scheduled to go into effect on Monday. </s> The attack targeted a market in the rebel-held city of Idlib, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Thirteen children and 13 women were among those killed as people shopped during the holiday Eid al-Adha. Tens of others were wounded.

The death toll is expected to rise, according to the monitoring group.

The ceasefire plan, announced Friday, calls for the Syrian government and the opposition to respect a nationwide ceasefire. It is scheduled to go into effect at sundown Monday.

The Syrian regime announced its support of the ceasefire deal Saturday, according to the state-run TV. Syrian men evacuate a victim from the rubble of a building following an airstrike on the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib on September 10, 2016. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the accord would prevent President Bashar al-Assad's air force from flying combat missions anywhere the opposition is present, calling this provision the "bedrock of the agreement." He labeled the Syrian air force the "main driver of civilian casualties" and migrant flows. People search for victims at the scene of the airstrikes. In February, a cessation of hostilities negotiated between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov fell apart within weeks, and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country have been on the verge of collapse. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their assaults on the rebel-held province of Idlib, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people.

The activist-run Local Coordination Committees is reporting airstrikes on the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan, and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib.

The network says the Monday morning airstrikes killed three children. It blamed the attacks on Russian aircraft.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported strikes on Idlib city. It says 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes.

The Syrian Civil Defense first responder group said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday airstrikes across the province, including attacks on two rural marketplaces that killed dozens. </s> Story highlights Eyewitness: "The jets arrived over Idlib and we heard three explosions"

At least 28 children are among the dead

The US and Russia agreed to a ceasefire plan that starts Monday

(CNN) At least 90 people were killed in airstrikes that rained down on northwestern Syria on Saturday and Sunday, a rights group said. The surge in violence came just hours after the US and Russia announced a new ceasefire plan.

The airstrikes landed in the rebel-held areas of Idlib in the northwest and Aleppo in the north of the country, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The worst strikes were in Idlib, where at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in an attack that targeted a crowded market, an activist who witnessed the bombing and its aftermath told CNN.

The activist, who asked to be identified as Omar for security reasons, said he was in Idlib to cover the atmosphere a day ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday. Omar took a detour to the city since the roads near the markets were closed as a security precaution, and that probably saved his life, he said.

"We heard a whistling sound then the explosions," Omar said. The jets arrived around 12:30 p.m. local time, he said. "Two or three rockets landed in middle of the market. We left the car where we were and headed towards the site of explosion."

Read More </s> Forty-two people have been killed and many more injured in an airstrike on a mosque in a rebel-held village of northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for human rights has said.

The attack on Thursday is said to have taken place in al-Jina, near the province of Idlib in western Aleppo, a day after the sixth anniversary of the start of the country's civil war.

The area is home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by fighting.

American officials said US forces carried out an airstrike in Idlib on Thursday "killing several terrorists", but made no mention of civilian casualties.

"Idlib has been a significant safe haven for al Qaeda in recent years," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Civil Defence, volunteer paramedics known as the White Helmets, said three civilians were killed in an early morning airstrike on the village of Sheikh Ali in the Aleppo countryside.

The airstrike also came a day after suicide attacks in the capital, Damascus, killed at least 30 people. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian first responders say they have tallied 22 civilian fatalities from a presumed Russian or Syrian government airstrike on the rebel-held city of Idlib.

The Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, said 15 children have been reported killed by the pre-dawn airstrike today in northwest Syria. It said its rescuers had been working all day to reach victims in the rubble.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported 21 civilians killed. It said the aircraft behind the attack were believed to be Russian. Syrian government aircraft are also known to fly raids over Idlib. The attack occurred in the city's Qasour neighborhood. </s> At least nine civilians were killed and 14 others injured in fresh regime airstrikes in the de-escalation zones in northwestern Syria on Tuesday.

The attacks targeted residential areas in the towns of Jisr al-Shughur, Khan Shaykhun, Maar Shoreen, Hantoteen and Ain Al Bardeh in Idlib province, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground.

Turkey and Russia inked a deal in Sochi for a buffer zone in September to prevent a massive regime offensive on the Idlib region near the Turkish border.

Following eight months of calm provided by the Sochi deal, the Assad regime intensified its attacks starting April 26 under the pretext of fighting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants holed up in Idlib.

The offensive has displaced over 300,000 within the opposition-held area and killed hundreds, including medical staff. Residential areas have been destroyed by indiscriminate attacks, while numerous educational facilities, health facilities and residential areas have collapsed or have become unusable after being targeted by bombs.

Aid agencies say the scale of bombardment in the northwest risks further humanitarian disaster, hundreds of thousands of people have already fled toward the Turkish border. </s> A Syrian monitor says at least 16 people have died in airstrikes on a prison in northwestern Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday said prisoners and staff were killed in the strikes in the rebel-held city of Idlib.

The Observatory says it has received reports that some of those killed were fleeing after the airstrikes and were shot by prison staff members.

Idlib is an opposition stronghold where Russian warplanes have been known to carry out strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Since 2011, the conflict in Syria has killed 400,000 people, wounded more than 1 million and displaced half the country's population. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes in Syria killed 17 people, mostly children today when warplanes struck a school complex in the northern rebel-held province of Idlib, activists said.

The Idlib News network said the strikes hit as the children were gathered outside the school complex in the village of Hass. The activist-operated group put the death toll at 17, and said most of the victims were children.

There were fears the death toll could rise further as some of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition, the network added. Another activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 22. It said 14 children and a woman were among those killed.

Idlib is the main Syrian opposition stronghold, though radical groups also have a large presence there. It has regularly been hit by Syrian and Russian warplanes as well as the U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State militants.

Footage posted by activists on line shows a huge plume of smoke rising from the area of the strikes. Rescuers are seen rushing casualties away along a dusty road lined with destroyed buildings.

A woman's body is seen being carried on a stretcher while other bodies, covered in cloth and one with only a hat, are lying under shrubs in what could possibly have been a garden among the buildings. Other casualties are seen being ferried in pickup trucks.
Before a ceasefire takes effect tomorrow, over 100 people have been killed and over 100 injured in airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib.