Airstrike on mosque kills 40 in Syria's Aleppo province

Baku. 17 March. REPORT.AZ/ Forty people, mostly civilians, have died in an air strike on a mosque in a rebel-held village in northern Syria. 

Report Informs citing the BBC, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raid by unidentified planes was in al-Jineh, Aleppo province.

The US said it had carried out an air strike, killing several al-Qaeda militants, but had not hit a mosque. US Central Command originally said the strike took place in neighbouring Idlib province but later clarified that the precise location was unclear.

"We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target - which was where the meeting [of militants] took place - is about 50ft (15m) from a mosque that is still standing," spokesman Col John J Thomas said.

The UK-based observatory, which relays information from sources on the ground, said the al-Jineh mosque had been packed with worshippers for evening prayers. “During the raid, unidentified aircraft struck a mosque in the province of Aleppo, depriving the lives of 42 people, mostly civilians," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based monitoring center. 

He added, about a hundred people were injured during the strike. Some of the survivors may be under the rubble.