At least 24 killed in Syria airstrikes

At least 24 people have been killed in airstrikes on the Aleppo and Tadef in northern Syria.

At least 24 civilians have been killed in air raids on a rebel-held area of Aleppo and an Islamic State-held village nearby.

Some 14 people were killed in the airstrikes on Tadef, near the town of al-Bab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Local opposition sources said Wednesday's raids were carried out by Turkish forces.

Al-Bab lies about 30km south of the border town of al-Rai, one of the centres of Turkey's recent ground intervention in support of Syrian rebels against Islamic State and Kurdish-led forces.

It also lies about 25km from positions held by the Kurdish-led forces who last month captured the city of Minbij from Islamic State. Government forces are also positioned close to al-Bab.

Both rebels and the Kurdish-backed forces have said they intend to move on al-Bab. Capturing the town would allow the Kurds to link up their main territory in north-eastern Syria with an enclave they control in the north-west.

Turkey and the rebels are adamantly opposed to the formation of a Kurdish entity spanning northern Syria.

In Aleppo's eastern al-Sukari district, meanwhile, the Observatory reported that 10 people were killed in air raids, a day after activists there reported a poison gas attack.

Ibrahim al-Hajj, a spokesman for the volunteer Syrian emergency group White Helmets, said that 22 people died and 40 others were wounded.

Al-Hajj also said that four rescue workers from his organisation, which works in opposition-held areas of the country, were killed in air raids over the past 24 hours in and near Aleppo.

The international chemical weapons watchdog said it was "disturbed" by reports of chlorine gas use in an air raid Tuesday in al-Sukari.

"We are disturbed by the recent allegations of the use of toxic chemicals in Aleppo," said a statement by the director-general of the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Uzumcu.