Syria: UN orders probe into attacks on Idlib school that killed 20 children

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has demanded an immediate investigation into an air strike in Syria on Wednesday that hit a school, killing more than 20 children.

“If deliberate, this attack may amount to a war crime,” he said.
Russia has said neither it nor Syria carried out the attack in the village of Hass in rebel-held Idlib.

Syrian media and a monitoring group meanwhile say rebel fire killed several children at a school in government-held western Aleppo on Thursday.

State news agency Sana said three children died when shells hit the school in the Shahaba area. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said six children were killed in both that incident and rebel shelling of the government-held district of Hamdaniya.

It came as the UN warned that the coming winter could be the worst yet in Syria’s five-year-long civil war.

The head of the UN’s humanitarian task force for Syria, Jan Egeland, said the brutal conflict had become “more ruthless” and was affecting increasing numbers of civilians, including children.

Five Syrian schools, including the one in Idlib, have been targeted since 11 October, the UN’s children’s fund Unicef said.