Baladi - Media
The United Nations says at least 134 people, including many children, were killed over the weekend in northern Syria.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York on Monday that at least 59 civilians, including 17 children, were killed when a weapons and ammunition depot exploded in a residential building near the town of Sarmada.
A Syrian search-and-rescue group put the total death toll from the blast at 67. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a slightly higher death toll, saying 69 died, including 17 children. The Observatory says 52 of the victims were civilians; the rest were militants or couldn't be identified.
Citing the U.N. children's agency, Haq said another 28 children were killed over the last 36 hours in other incidents. He says three UNICEF-supported health facilities were attacked and two are now out of service.
Haq says local authorities suspended all school activities in three towns for three days due to hostilities.
He said the information he shared Monday came from U.N. humanitarian officials inside Syria.
The Syrian government has been sending reinforcements to northern Syria ahead of an expected assault on the Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
Source: ABC News