DAMASCUS: Syrian warplanes killed 27 civilians in a raid on a village market on Thursday, as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime nearly completed surrendering its chemical weapons stockpile.

The air raid on the Aleppo provincial village of Atareb, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three children were among the dead, comes amid a massive aerial offensive on rebel areas across the province that began in mid-December.

The campaign has killed hundreds, mostly civilians, and forced thousands of families to flee.

Aleppo-based activist Abu Omar said the area hit was a market area -- “that’s why there were so many civilians killed.

“The regime is hitting back against the civilians who support the revolt “against Assad, he added.

Activists distributed amateur video footage showing chaotic scenes, with bodies lying among mounds of rubble.

The video shows a woman in a white headscarf screaming as she leans over the body of a loved one.

It also shows a man attending a boy whose leg has been ripped off. It was unclear whether the child was alive or dead.

Chemical handover nearly complete: Meanwhile, the joint Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-UN task team charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal said 92.5 percent of its stockpile has been surrendered.

Damascus had pledged to have all of its stockpile removed from Syria by Sunday, with the weapons due to be destroyed by June 30.

On Wednesday, UN Security Council members called for new claims of a chlorine gas attack in a rebel bastion to be probed.

Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, who holds the council’s rotating presidency, said there was concern over reports about the use of chlorine gas killing and injuring people, and called for an investigation.

There have been conflicting accounts of an alleged chlorine attack on opposition-held Kafr Zita, with the government and the opposition trading blame.

Under the terms of a US-Russian brokered deal that averted the threat of US military action last year, Syria agreed to destroy its chemical stockpiles.

The deal was reached after deadly chemical attacks outside Damascus last August killed hundreds of people.—AFP