At least 17 people were killed on Wednesday in an explosion in the center of Jisr al-Shughour, a rebel-held city in northwestern Syria, a day after heavy Russian air strikes, rescue workers and residents said.
Several buildings collapsed as a result of the blast which shook the city in Idlib province, near a road between the coastal city of Latakia and city of Aleppo.
The city has been a target of bombardment by the Russian air force and the Syrian army in recent weeks. Most of its inhabitants have fled to the safety of areas close to the Turkish border, residents and local officials say.
In a separate incident, Syrian state-run media reported a bomb had killed a civilian and wounded five other people in a Damascus neighborhood.
The official SANA news agency says the bomb had been placed in a car in the Nahr Aysheh district in southern Damascus and killed the driver when it detonated. The agency says an investigation is underway.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
