At least 24 people were killed in a series air strikes by Syrian government aircraft around the city of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.

Two children were among 12 people killed when a barrel bomb hit a shelter in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, southeast of Idlib, on Tuesday, Al Arabia news channel quoted the observatory as saying, adding a missile strike on a village southwest of Idlib killed a woman.

Inside the city, a wave of missile strikes killed 11 men, it added, without specifying whether they were rebel fighters or civilians.

The state SANA news agency cited a military source as saying that the air force had targeted terrorist positions in Idlib and its outskirts.