BEIRUT: At least 28 people, including women and children, were killed when air strikes hit a camp for internally displaced people in Syria’s Idlib province near the Turkish border on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The death toll at the camp near the town of Sarmada was expected to rise because of the number of seriously wounded people, the Observatory said.

“There were two aerial strikes that hit this makeshift camp for refugees who have taken refuge from fighting in southern Aleppo and Palmyra.

The camp took two direct hits. I heard many tents were on fire,” said Abu Ibrahim al-Sarmadi, an activist from the nearby town of Atmeh who has been speaking to people near the affected camp.

He said wounded people were rushed to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing for treatment in Turkey.

Footage shared on social media showed charred tent frames and rescue workers putting out fires which still burned among the tents, pitched in a muddy field. White smoke billowed from smouldering ashes, and one burned and bloodied torso could be seen in the footage.

The Twitter account of the Syrian Civil Defence — first responders in opposition-held territory where medical infrastructure has all but broken down — said more than 30 people were killed in attacks on the camp.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016