Explosion at weapons depot kills 39 civilians, injures dozen in Syrian town

A monitoring group says at least 39 civilians, including 12 children, have lost their lives and dozens of others sustained injuries when a powerful explosion ripped through a weapons depot in Syria’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said the blast occurred in a residential building in town of Sarmada near the border with Turkey, and caused two buildings to collapse.

Abdel Rahman highlighted that the death toll was expected to further rise as scores of people remained trapped under rubble and tens of people remain unaccounted for.

The Observatory added that the ammunition depot belonged to an arms dealer working with the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, terrorist group, and was situated in the Bab al-Hawa neighborhood of Sarmada.