BEIRUT: At least 37 civilians were killed Wednesday in Syrian airstrikes near Damascus, while at least 13 people died as fighter fired a barrage of rockets into the capital, a monitor said.

Also on Wednesday, at least eight civilians, including five children, were killed in US-led air strikes on a weapons depot belonging to a fighter group allied with Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. The overnight raid hit the Atmeh region of the northwest Idlib province and also killed 10 members of the Jaish Al-Sunna group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Atmeh is home to a large camp for displaced Syrians, but the strikes did not hit the camp itself, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“There were a total of 18 people killed. Eight of them were civilians, including five children and two women,” he told AFP.

A Syrian military source said on Tuesday the army had retreated to new defensive lines in a region of vital strategic importance to Bashar Assad, seeking to avoid losses at the hands of advancing fighters.

The insurgent advance into the Sahl Al-Ghab plain in northwestern Syria has brought fighters including those from the Al-Nusra Front to the eastern edge of mountains that form the historical heartland of Assad’s Alawite people.