By AFP - Aug 13,2018 - Last updated at Aug 13,2018

Destroyed buildings are seen on Sunday following an explosion at an arms depot in a residential area in Syria's northern Idlib province city of Sarmada, in which 12 people were reportedly killed (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — An explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria killed at least 39 civilians including a dozen children on Sunday, a monitor said. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, said a previous toll of 12 civilians killed increased after more bodies were retrieved from the rubble. The explosion also killed 17 members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist-led alliance, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. He said most of those killed were family members of fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by jihadists from Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, who had been displaced to the area from the central province of Homs.
A report by the SOHR says that the explosion of an arms depot in Sarmada, Idlib Governorate, Syria, kills at least 69 people, including 17 children. The cause of the blast is "not yet clear". Most of the victims were reportedly family members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants.