Activists release footage of attacks in Idlib

Syria's opposition civil defense group known as the White Helmets released a video on Tuesday showing the rescue operation of wounded people after shelling by Russian-backed Syrian forces. Opposition activists and a war monitor said at least 16 people were killed in Idlib province Tuesday.

They included two students and two teachers who were killed in Idlib city when a school was struck with a cluster bomb-filled rocket, and 10 civilians who were killed in airstrikes on the town of Maarat Misreen in Idlib province.

The deaths were reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and Idlib-based opposition activist Hadi Abdullah.

The airstrikes on rebel-controlled northwest Syria came as government forces captured a town considered a symbol of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The Idlib region is the country's last rebel-controlled stronghold and the Syrian government's military campaign there, backed by Russia, has created a humanitarian catastrophe with nearly a million people displaced from their homes since December 1.