Fierce Government bombardment of an opposition-controlled Syrian town has killed 43 people, among them children and medical staff, a monitoring group said on Sunday in a new toll.
Hours of air strikes and shelling on Saturday struck Jayrud, 60 kilometres northeast of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said two medics were among the dead, as well as women and children.
The bombardment began after Syria’s armed forces said Islamist militants killed a Government pilot when he was forced to eject from his plane on Friday.
In a statement, the military had pledged that the attack on its pilot “will not go unpunished”. Early on Sunday, Abdel Rahman said prominent figures in Jayrud had reached an agreement with government officials “that the fighters would leave the town in exchange for the pilot’s body being handed over.”