49 killed as Syrian missiles strike public square

JANUDIYAH , Syria, June 8 (UPI) -- Government aerial missile fire against rebel targets in Janudiyah, Syria, killed 49 civilians, including six children, Monday, an activist group reported.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the air strikes in Syria's northwestern Idlib province struck a public square where people were shopping. The province is considered nearly completely controlled by an alliance of rebel forces which includes the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate. Rebels are currently advancing westward toward the coastal province of Latakia, on the Mediterranean Sea, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad.

An opposition activist organization, the Local Co-Operation Committees (LCC), placed the death toll at in Janudiyah at 60, adding dozens more were hospitalized in critical condition. The town was a shelter for people displaced from elsewhere in the province, and lies north of Jisr al-Shughur, which fell to rebel forces in April.

The LCC also reported four people died Monday in a missile strike in the eastern Idlib town of Taftanaz, and four others died as government helicopters bombed the town of Tal Rifaat, in Aleppo province.

Airstrikes by Syrian government forces killed approximately 734 people in May, including 148 children.