Eight children, together with their school teacher, were killed in a Russian air strike that hit a school in the Aleppo province of Syria on Monday. The strike occurred in the town of Anjara and injured an additional 20 people.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the incident. According to the group, the area has seen heavy combat between pro-government and rebel forces since the beginning of last week.
Continuing the trend of children suffering due to the Syrian civil war, another three children were killed by rebel rocket fire that was targeting part of the government held district in Aleppo City. The city has been a conflict since 2012.
Russian involvement via airstrikes, in support of Syrian President Bashar Al -Assad, has been continuous since September of last year. According to the observatory, one third of all the people killed in Russian air strikes have been civilians. It estimated that more than 2,300 people have been killed by Russian air strikes since they began on September 30. Among them are 792 civilians.
Russia slammed the allegations that it has been killing civilians as “absurd”
The total death toll in Syria has surpassed a quarter million with more than 260,000 people being killed since the conflict began in March 2011.
AFP contributed to this report.