Eight children among Idlib airstrike victims

AMMAN: Eight children and nine women were among at least 20 people killed as government forces bombarded the Idlib region of northwest Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitoring group said troops shelled the Abu Zohur area of Idlib after the opposition's claims of having seized control of its airport and shooting down a MiG warplane in fierce clashes with the military.
Activists posted videos online showing people combing through rubble for bodies.
Fighters earlier seized control of part of the airport, which they say has been used to bomb local areas, according to the Observatory.
Local rebel chief Colonel Afif Mahmoud Suleiman told AFP that hundreds of fighters attacked the airport and shot down the MiG with automatic weapons fire shortly after it took off.
Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi, meanwhile, caused a storm with a speech at a summit in Tehran, slamming the Damascus regime as “oppressive” and urging support for the opposition.
A war of words erupted between Mursi and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in the presence of Nonaligned Summit leaders after their summit began in Tehran.
“The revolution in Egypt is the cornerstone for the Arab Spring, which started days after Tunisia and then it was followed by Libya and Yemen and now the revolution in Syria against its oppressive regime,” Mursi said in his address.
“Our solidarity with the struggle of Syrians against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty, and a political and strategic necessity,” he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 128 people — 77 civilians, 19 fighters and 32 soldiers — were killed nationwide on Wednesday, including at least 44 civilians in Damascus.