Syrian Jet Crashes Into Rebel-Held Market

Dozens of people in a town in northwest Syria are thought to have been killed or injured when a fighter plane crashed during an air raid.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the warplane came down in the centre of Ariha, destroying several homes and killing at least 27 people.

Most of those who died were people on the ground. Scores of others were injured either at the time or during the raid, the Observatory said.

An amateur video posted online by someone claiming to have been at the scene showed damage to several buildings and parts of the plane littering the ground.

A spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees in the area said the warplane crashed in a busy market place.

It was not immediately clear whether the jet - which is understood to be a Syrian government plane - was shot down.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said that, at the time of the crash, the town was being attacked by Syrian President Bashar Assad's air force.

Ariha, in Idlib province, was captured from government forces by rebel fighters and Islamic militants in May.

There was no immediate reaction from Syria's military.

The town is not in an area controlled by Islamic State, according to a recent map produced by the Washington Post using information from the US think tank Institute for the Study of War.

Reuters said fighting has intensified in rural Idlib province recently between government forces and an insurgent grouping called Jaish al Fateh, or Army of Conquest, which includes al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

It came after US officials admitted the Pentagon will allow airstrikes to defend US-trained Syrian rebels if they come under attack, even if those doing that attacking are Assad's forces.

The first known US airstrikes to support US-trained rebels took place on Friday when a group of forces came under fire from Nusra Front militants in northern Syria.

The base where they were sheltering when the attack took place was also being used by a Western-backed Free Syrian Army unit, according to the Washington Post. Its location was withheld by the US government.