At least 23 people were killed on Sunday, including seven civilians, and dozens injured after a powerful explosion aimed against the headquarters of an Islamic insurgent group in the city of Idlib, in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Amongst the injured there are serious and critical cases, which could increase the death toll in the next few hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned.

The organization could not determine whether the explosion was triggered by a regular bomb or a car bomb.

The target of the attack was the headquarters of the armed group "Soldiers of the Caucasus," one of the Islamic fundamentalist rebel groups operating in Idlib which is made up of fighters from Central Asia.

Rescue teams were transferring the wounded and the dead bodies and continuing the task to rescue those who are trapped under the rubble following the explosion.

The province is controlled almost entirely by the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, an alliance created by al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch and other armed groups who are fighting against the forces loyal to the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Residential buildings in the rebel-held city of Idlib were badly damaged by the explosion

At least 40 people have reportedly been killed in an explosion and a series of air strikes across the rebel-held north Syrian province of Idlib.

The blast, on Sunday night outside the headquarters of the Islamist rebel faction Ajnad al-Qawqaz in the city of Idlib, left 25 people dead.

The cause was not clear but many believed a car bomb was responsible.

Activists say another 15 people were killed in Syrian government and Russian air strikes elsewhere on Sunday.

The attacks came as the Syrian military announced they had recaptured the strategically important town of Sinjar in south-eastern Idlib.

Troops are advancing towards Abu al-Zuhour airbase, about 14km (nine miles) away, which rebels captured when they seized control of most of the province in 2015.

The large explosion in the centre of the provincial capital damaged several buildings and destroyed vehicles parked on Thalatheen Street.

The Syria Civil Defence, whose rescue workers are known as the White Helmets, says four children and 11 women were among the 25 people killed.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Rescue workers rushed to the scene on Sunday night and pulled victims from the rubble

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, put the death toll at 34, including 19 civilians. Other fatalities are believed to have been members of Ajnad al-Qawqaz, it said.

In the rebel faction are many foreign fighters from the Caucasus and Russia and it is allied with Hayat Tahir al-Sham, a jihadist force linked to al-Qaeda.

The Syrian Observatory attributed the explosion to a car bomb or drone strike.

Rebel-held areas outside the city were also reportedly subjected to deadly air strikes on Sunday:

Eleven members of the same family were killed in a raid on the town of Jarjanaz, 35km to the south-east, according to the Syrian Observatory. The pro-opposition Edlib Media Center said witnesses had identified the aircraft as Russian

The Syria Civil Defence said a father and his son had also been killed and four other members of their family wounded in a strike on the town of Kansafra, 32km south-west of Idlib city

Air strikes reportedly continued across Idlib on Monday. Jarjanaz was targeted again, along with the town of Saraqeb, the Edlib Media Center says.

Idlib, which borders Turkey to the north, is home to an estimated 2.5 million people, including one million who have fled other rebel-held parts of Syria in recent years.

The UN says fighting and air strikes inside Idlib have forced more than 60,000 people to leave their homes since 1 November, and that they are in a "dire" situation. </s> An explosion of unknown origin at a weapons depot Sunday in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 69 civilians including 17 children, in addition to scores of injuries.

Mustafa Hajj Yusuf, the head of Idlib Civil Defense, earlier acknowledged the death toll at least as 39 dead and 45 injured. He later told Anadolu Agency that search and rescue operation was concluded as of Monday morning and 17 civilians, mostly women and children, were pulled under the rubble. The number of the injured stands at 50.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed the casualty toll on Monday.

An AFP correspondent at the site in the opposition-held town of Sarmada near the Turkish border said the explosion caused two buildings to collapse.

On Sunday morning, rescue workers used a bulldozer to remove rubble and extract trapped people, the correspondent said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, earlier said the death toll could rise as dozens were still missing.

"The explosion occurred in a weapons depot in a residential building in Sarmada," the head of the Britain based monitor said. But the cause of the blast was "not yet clear", Abdel Rahman added.

A rescue worker carried the motionless body of a small child from the wreckage to an ambulance, the AFP correspondent said.

Behind mounds of rubble, the facade of a building was scorched black, due to a fire after the blast.

A civil defense source told AFP that women and children were among the dead.

But rescue workers had pulled out "five people who were still alive", the source said.

Most of Idlib is controlled by Turkish backed opposition fighters, while parts of it are controlled by terrorist groups led by al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but the Daesh terror group also has sleeper cells in the area.

In recent months, a series of explosions and assassinations -- mainly targeting opposition officials and fighters -- have rocked the province.

While some attacks have been claimed by Daesh, most are the result of infighting since last year between various other groups.

In recent days, regime forces have ramped up their deadly bombardment of southern Idlib and sent reinforcements to nearby areas they control.

Bashar al-Assad has warned that regime forces intend to retake Idlib, after his regime regained control of swathes of opposition held territory elsewhere.

Around 2.5 million people live in the province, half of them displaced by fighting in other parts of the country.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's civil war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. </s> BEIRUT — An explosion outside an office belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group in the country’s northwestern on Friday killed at least 11 people and wounded several others, opposition activists said.

The blast comes a week after members of the al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, or HTS, took over control of wide parts of Idlib province and the surrounding countryside after forcing rival insurgents to accept a deal for a civil administration run by HTS in their areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Smart news agency, an activist collective, said the blast occurred on the southern edge of the rebel-held city of Idlib.

The Observatory said 11 people were killed in the blast, including seven HTS members. Smart said 12 people were killed, many of them militants.

In the country’s east, an air strike in the last area held by the Islamic State killed at least 20 people in the village of Baghouz, according to the state news agency SANA. The Observatory said 23 people were killed including 10 Islamic State members.

They both blamed the U.S.-led coalition that has been providing air cover to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in their months-long offensive to capture the area from extremists near the Iraqi border.

Meanwhile in Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to discuss the situation in Syria as the United States prepares to withdraw troops.

Graham, a prominent voice on foreign affairs in the U.S., met with Erdogan and other Turkish officials Friday for talks that were also expected to include a proposal for the creation of a “safe zone” in northeast Syria.

The visit comes days after a suicide bombing, claimed by Islamic State, killed two U.S. service members and two American civilians in the northeastern town of Manbij. </s> BEIRUT — Syrian opposition activists say an explosion outside an office belonging to an al-Qaida-linked group in the country’s northwestern has killed at least 11 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Smart news agency, an activist collective, said the blast occurred Friday on the southern edge of the rebel-held city of Idlib.

The blast comes a week after members of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, or HTS, took over control of Idlib province and the surrounding countryside after forcing rival insurgents to accept a deal for a civil administration run by HTS in their areas.

The Observatory said 11 people were killed in the blast, including seven HTS members. Smart said 12 people were killed, many of them militants. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 18 people were killed and tens more injured, including civilians, in an explosion in Syria’s northwestern city of Idlib, a war monitor reported on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion targeted the headquarters of an opposition faction in Idlib. It was not immediately clear what the nature of the attack was. </s> BEIRUT - An explosion killed 11 people and wounded more than 80 on Monday in the rebel-controlled Syrian city of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.



The British-based war monitoring group said the source of the blast was unclear.



The Civil Defence in Idlib, a rescue service that operates in rebel territory, gave the death toll as at least 10 civilians with 110 others injured. It caused damage in four buildings, one of them entirely.



The northwestern Idlib region remains the largest populated area of Syria in the hands of insurgents fighting the Damascus government, including both jihadist factions and nationalist FSA rebels. The dominant force there is Hayat Tahrir al Sham, an Islamist alliance spearheaded by the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.



Tens of thousands of fighters and civilians have poured into Idlib in recent years, after leaving other parts of the country which the army recaptured with the help of Russia and Iran. ( </s> An explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria killed at least 39 civilians including a dozen children Sunday, a monitor said.

The explosion happened in the town of Sarmada, which is near the Turkish border and north of the provincial capital Idlib city.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said a previous death toll of 12 increased after more bodies were retrieved from the rubble.

But the cause of the blast was "not yet clear", Mr Abdel Rahman added.

He said most of those killed were family members of fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by jihadists from Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, who had been displaced to the area from the central province of Homs.

A civil defence source told AFP news agency that women and children were among the dead. But rescue workers had pulled out "five people who were still alive", the source said. </s> An explosion at a base for Asian jihadists in northwestern Syria's Idlib city on Sunday killed 23 people including seven civilians, a monitor said.

Extremist groups fighting in Syria count thousands of Asians among their ranks, including many from central Asian states and members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority of China's Xinjiang province.

"A large explosion on Sunday evening hit the base of the Ajnad al-Qawqaz faction in Idlib," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that most of the non-civilian casualties were fighters from the group.

He did not specify the cause of the blast, but activists on social media said a car bomb was responsible.

Dozens of people were wounded, particularly fighters, according to Abdel Rahman who said the base was "almost completely destroyed" and that nearby buildings were damaged.

The Ajnad al-Qawqaz group includes hundreds of Caucasian fighters and is battling alongside the Fateh al-Sham Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, to repel a Syrian regime advance in the southeast of Idlib province.

The area has seen intense clashes following a regime offensive aimed at seizing a strategically vital highway between Damascus and second city Aleppo.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists across Syria, said regime forces had seized more than 60 villages in the area since December 25.

An alliance dominated by Fateh al-Sham controls much of Idlib province where there are regular car bombings, often blamed on disputes between armed factions.

Some residents blame the Islamic State group for such attacks, although the group has no open presence in the province.
An explosion at the headquarters of the Chechen-led Ajnad al-Kavkaz rebel group in Idlib, Syria, kills at least 23 people, while several people remain unaccounted for, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.