Airstrikes in north-west Syria kill 17

Unidentified planes have targeted a village in Syria's north-west province, killing 17 people, a human rights group says.

Airstrikes on Syria's north-western province of Idlib have killed 17 people and injured 31 others, a monitoring group says.

The unidentified planes targeted the village of Maarshoureen in the southern sector of Idlib, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian activists in the area said the government has been carrying out intensified strikes on rebel-held areas over the past few weeks.

Idlib has an estimated 2 million residents, including those displaced from other provinces.

It is the only province in Syria under rebel control, but it is dominated by an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent faction, complicating ceasefire efforts.

Syria's crisis began with peaceful anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.

The conflict soon spiralled into a multi-sided civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced about half of Syria's pre-war population of 22 million.