DAMASCUS, Syria -- An airstrike Thursday on a refugee camp in Syria's north left at least 28 people dead and dozens wounded, including many children, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Meanwhile, in the ancient city of Palmyra, recently recaptured by government troops after 10 months of rule by Islamic State militants, a Russian symphony performed at the Roman-era amphitheater.
Images posted on social media of the aftermath of the airstrike that tore through the Sarmada camp in rebel-held territory close to the border with Turkey showed tents burned to the ground, charred bodies, and bloodied women and children being loaded onto a pickup.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack on the camp in Idlib province where some 2,000 displaced people had taken shelter from the fighting in nearby Aleppo and Hama provinces over the past year. The Observatory said 28 people were killed while the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said more than 30 died.
The White House called the strike "indefensible." There was "no justifiable excuse" to target civilians who had already fled their homes to escape violence, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, calling the situation "heartbreaking."
Earnest said it was too early to say whether Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces carried out the attack, but he said he had no knowledge of any U.S. or coalition aircraft operating in the area.
U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien called for an independent investigation, saying that if the camp was deliberately targeted it "could amount to a war crime."
The footage of charred bodies and desperate men pouring buckets of water to douse the flames was in stark contrast to the concert at the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra, where renowned conductor Valery Gergiev led a performance by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra from St. Petersburg. Joining the orchestra was cellist Sergei Roldugin, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's close friends and a subject of recent leaks about secret offshore holdings.
Palmyra was recaptured in late March by Syrian soldiers backed by Russian airstrikes -- a success that Moscow says demonstrates its leadership in the fight against the Islamic State.
But Russia has also come under intense criticism from the West and its allies for offensives that have targeted rebel factions fighting Assad's forces, including some backed by Washington.
A recent surge of violence by both sides in the strategic northern city of Aleppo has killed more than 250 people, including more than 50 in an airstrike last week on a hospital in a rebel-held area. The battles further eroded international efforts to impose a cease-fire between Syrian and opposition forces.
Assad, in a letter to Putin, vowed to prevail in Aleppo and drew comparisons to Stalingrad's "heroic" resistance to a siege by German troops in World War II, The Associated Press reported.
The archaeological site was badly damaged by the Islamic State militants who held Palmyra for 10 months. During the concert -- "A Prayer for Palmyra," featuring music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Sergei Prokofiev -- which was broadcast live on Russian television, images of the military action were shown, as well as footage of the destruction of monuments and Islamic State militants marching residents to their deaths.
Among those in the audience were Russian units that have been carrying out demining in the town to remove bombs left by the Islamic State militants.
"What was done here can only be compared with what the fascists did in Russia," said Russia's culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, the highest-ranking official to visit Palmyra on Thursday. "It is amazing that the lot of the Russian soldiers in all times in history has been to save world culture from destruction."
Gergiev, who's also principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, is a supporter of Putin. He staged a high-profile concert by the Mariinsky in August 2008 in the bombed South Ossetian capital of Tshkinvali after Russia fought a brief war with Georgia over the breakaway territory.
In opening remarks, Gergiev said that with the concert, "we protest against the barbarians who destroyed monuments of world culture." In a video linkup, Putin also addressed the audience, saying he regards the concert "as a sign of gratitude, remembrance and hope."
Medinsky joined Russia's representative to UNESCO, Eleonora Mitrofanova, in viewing the damage caused by Islamic State militants across the site, spread over a desert plain about 140 miles northeast of Damascus.
The upbeat tone was at variance with the violence elsewhere in Syria, where a double-suicide bombing in central Homs province killed at least 10 civilians and a fierce rebel assault on a government position in the north overshadowed a shaky cease-fire imposed over the city of Aleppo.
At least 49 people were wounded in the attacks on a village 30 miles east of Homs, Syria's third-largest city, according to state media and the regional governor, Talal Barrazi.
A car bomb first exploded in the main square of the village of Mukharam al-Fawkani. As people gathered to help the victims, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle detonated explosives nearby. Four children and three women were among those killed, according to Syrian state TV.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Islamic State group has carried out several similar deadly attacks in Homs province. The area is close to where Syrian troops and Islamic State gunmen have been fighting for control of the vital Shaer gas field, which fell to the Islamic State on Wednesday after the extremists overran 13 government checkpoints and captured a Syrian soldier. The Observatory said 34 government troops and 16 militants have been killed in three days of fighting there.
Meanwhile, relative calm prevailed in the northern city of Aleppo, the center of the worst violence recently, after a truce announced Wednesday by U.S. officials in agreement with Russia. The Syrian military said the truce would last only 48 hours.
But a Lebanese TV station embedded with the Syrian army said Syrian rebels were waging an offensive on a government-held village south of Aleppo.
Also, the international medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders has pulled out of the first U.N. humanitarian conference, saying the meeting won't address the growing needs caused by war and violence across the world because of its nonbinding nature.
Eighty governments and 45 world leaders are expected to attend the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on May 23-24. About 6,000 people, including 250 private sector leaders, heads of aid groups and representatives of civil society, affected communities and youth, also will take part in the summit.
But Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement Wednesday that it's pulling out "with considerable disappointment" because "we no longer have any hope that the [summit] will address the weaknesses in humanitarian action and emergency response, particularly in conflict areas or epidemic situations."
According to the international organization, the World Humanitarian Summit will be a missed opportunity.
"The summit neglects to reinforce the obligations of states to uphold and implement the humanitarian and refugee laws which they have signed up to," Doctors Without Borders said.
Insisting on the needs caused by violence in Syria, Yemen and South Sudan, the treatment of refugees and migrants or the Ebola epidemic, Doctors Without Borders said the meeting won't help improve assistance.
"In all of these situations, the responsibilities of states in their making, and the diminished capacity of the humanitarian system to respond causing yet more suffering and death, will go unaddressed," Doctors Without Borders said.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric rued the agency's decision, but insisted the summit is "clearly needed."
"I'd say it's disappointing because I think the summit was going to deal with a lot issues that are vital to MSF, and MSF traditionally presents a strong and influential voice," he said. "Whether that's preventing and ending conflict, accountability on the implementation of obligations under international humanitarian law, protection of civilians, protection of health workers and health facilities and unimpeded humanitarian access."
Information for this article was contributed by Albert Aji, Philip Issa, Bassem Mroue, Jim Heintz and Josh Lederman of The Associated Press; Andrew Roth, Hugh Naylor and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post; and Henry Meyer of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 05/06/2016