Five children killed as missiles hit Syrian school

A monitoring group and Syrian opposition activists said on Wednesday that at least eight people, including five children, were killed on Tuesday as missiles hit a school in northwest part of the country sheltering displaced civilians,

The strikes targeted the village of Jobas near the town of Saraqeb in southern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.

Syria has endured an eight years civil war triggered by the quest to push out President Bashir Assad from power.

Inspired by the Arab Spring that ousted several despotic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in 2011, the Syrians backed by the West launched a relentless campaign to end the iron-fist Assad regime.

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Several thousand have been killed and millions displaced in the war which started in March 2011.

The activists told Al Jazeera that Syrian government troops also besieged a Turkish observation post in the area but have not attacked it so far.

Syrian forces launched a wide ground offensive last week in the northwest, after weeks of bombardment that displaced tens of the thousands of people in Idlib province.

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