Russian jets said to step up strikes on Syrian rebel enclave

Russian jets bombed villages and towns near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Sunday, killing at least nine civilians and wounding dozens in a major flare-up of violence in the country's last opposition stronghold, witnesses and rescuers said.

War planes flying at high altitude, which tracking centres said were Russian Sukhoi jets, dropped bombs on a vegetable market in Jisr al-Shughour while it was crowded with shoppers ahead of the Muslim Eid feast, leaving at least nine dead and 30 injured, the Western-backed White Helmets emergency response group said.