Civilians killed as Syrian jets flatten homes

An air strike on a town held by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border killed at least 30 civilians on Wednesday, the latest massacre inflicted by regime fighter jets in the uprising.

With no prior warning, a fighter dropped two bombs on the town of Aazaz in the north of Aleppo province. The first struck a residential area, flattening more than 20 houses, damaging 100 more and killing 25 occupants immediately.

As many as 12 more were reported to have died of their injuries after being taken to the Turkish town of Kilis for treatment.

The second bomb hit a bus station on the edge of town, killing a young woman and seriously injuring her parents.

The scale of the devastation was far more extensive than that caused by previous bombings, suggesting that a much bigger explosive was used.

At the scene of the first attack, nothing was left standing in an area almost 50 yards square. "Look at this, those are completely crushed, these houses have floors brought down on each other," said Hussein Daraballah, whose house was damaged.

Video footage showed children's hands poking out of the rubble and of body parts being removed.

The bombing was part of a pattern of attacks seen recently in the countryside north of Aleppo.

The jet could be heard 15 miles away swooping in, dropping its first bomb, turning and coming in again before disappearing.

Several towns under rebel control have been hit sporadically by mortar fire and more rarely from the air. But there has always been a build-up before air attacks of strafing or the use of stun bombs.

Aazaz is three miles from Bab al-Salama, a border post with Turkey that has been seized by the Free Syrian Army. "This is revenge because they can't do anything on the ground any more," said Mahmoud Maky, a blacksmith in the town. "There is no other reason. The only way they can hurt us is with jets."

"This man is crazy," said Mohammed Diab of President Bashar al-Assad. "What can we do to stop him?"

Another just sat on the step of his half-ruined house and wept. "We are just civilians, sitting in our homes," he said.

There are FSA posts in the town but they do not seem to have been targeted. In other documented cases of civilian deaths from air strikes the victims lived within 100 metres of FSA bases - the accuracy limits of the "non-smart" Russian-made missiles used by the Syrian air force.

There was also fighting in Damascus yesterday, after a bomb attack claimed by the FSA near the Dama Rose hotel injured three people.

The hotel is a base for the United Nations monitoring mission in Syria, but the FSA said the target was a military building.