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(CNN) - Three separate attacks were aimed at crowded markets in northwestern Syria, resulting in a brutal death toll on Monday in the war-ravaged area, according to local volunteer and rights groups. At least 19 people were killed, 12 of them were children.
In the province of Idlib, the last major opposition stronghold in Syria, air strikes ravaged two markets, killing at least nine people in Maarat al-Numan and nearby Saraqeb, said a volunteer rescue group known as the White Helmets.
At least four of those killed in the attack on Maarat al-Numan were children, according to the Syrian American Medical Society.
The images published by the White Helmets show members removing bodies from the scene in the city of Maarat al-Numan, where lettuce and onion were scattered on the blood-stained ground.
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Another video from the same city shared by the White Helmets showed a girl, her face covered in blood, crying next to her brother and calling her father. "Please tell me that my dad is still alive, please, dad is still alive," she says.
CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of these videos.
The White Helmets rescue group blamed the attack on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who usually carries out airstrikes in the area with the help of Russia. In the past, the Syrian government has said they are attacking terrorists in Idlib, where their forces are pressing to recover the few remaining resistance groups in the country.
Hours later, another attack
Hours after the attacks in Idlib, a separate attack killed eight more children and two others in another market in the city of Tal Rifaat in the neighboring province, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the Kurds. At least eight more children were injured, according to UNICEF.
The UN children's agency said it was "shocked and saddened" by the reported deaths. Monday's attacks raised the number of children killed in northern Syria to at least 34 in the last four weeks, UNICEF said.
Hassan Hassan, a Tal Rifaat resident, told CNN that Monday's attack hit a local market where the children had been playing. He said that many of the dead and wounded were Kurds displaced from Afrin after Turkey's assault there in 2018.
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And Ibrahim Sheikho, a spokesman for a local human rights group called Human Rights of Afrin, told CNN that the eight children killed in the attack were between three and 15 years old. He said he expected the death toll to increase due to the severity of the injuries.
The SDF blamed the Turkish forces and the 'militias backed by Turkey' for the attack, which they said threw artillery and mortars at the city. Syrian Kurds and US officials said earlier this month that Turkey-backed groups continued to carry out attacks in the area, despite a ceasefire negotiated last month.
Neither Turkey nor the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkey or the FSA (also called the Syrian National Army) has responded to accusations of Monday's attack on Tal Rifat. CNN has contacted both for comments.
According to Sheikho, the city of Tal Rifaat has more than 22,000 internally displaced, mostly Kurds, who are from Afrin.
He described the area as controlled by the Syrian government, but said only Russian forces are seen within the city.
The eight-year civil war in Syria has killed some 400,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011.
Attack on Syria Children