Rocket attack kills 12 in Syrian regime-held village

Rocket fire has killed 12 civilians in a regime-held village in northwestern Syria, state-owned news agency SANA has said.

SANA said 15 people were also wounded late on Sunday in the attack on Al-Wadihi village south of Aleppo city.
Extreme Islamist rebels were blamed for the attacks.

The SANA report published graphic pictures purporting to show some of the victims in a hospital in the aftermath of the attack, including of bandaged men and children lying on stretchers, thick blankets covering their bodies. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the same death toll, saying five children were among those killed. 

The attack came as Syrian regime forces have been locked in clashes with rebel fighters in nearby Hama province.

Read more: Syria regime pummels Idlib just hours after 'ceasefire' agreement

More than 35 combattants, mostly regime forces, were killed on Saturday in battles in Hama's countryside, according to the Observatory.

Parts of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib are supposed to be protected from a massive regime offensive by a buffer zone deal that Russia and Turkey signed in September.

But it was never fully implemented as rebels refused to withdraw from a planned demilitarised zone.

The Syrian government and Russia have upped their bombardment of the region since late April, killing nearly 400 civilians, according to the Observatory. 

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

Russia launched a military intervention in support of the regime in 2015, helping its forces reclaim large parts of the country from opposition fighters and Islamist militants.