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Russian orchestra plays in Palmyra ruins as strikes kill 28

Syrian citizens gather Thursday where two explosions struck the village of Mukharam al-Fawkani, east of the central city of Homs, Syria. A separate airstrike on a refugee camp in the north left at least 28 people dead in the Idlib province. (Uncredited / SANA via Associated Press)
By Albert Aji and Philip Issa Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria – A renowned Russian conductor led a triumphant concert Thursday in the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, once terrorized by the Islamic State group, even as an airstrike on a refugee camp in the north left at least 28 people dead and dozens wounded, including many children.

The performance in the same ancient amphitheater where IS militants carried out widely publicized killings – and called “A Prayer for Palmyra” – was intended to send a message that Russia’s presence in Syria would bring hope and stability.

But even as strains of Bach and Sergei Prokofiev’s First Symphony echoed through the Roman theater packed with an audience that included Russian servicemen, Syrian government ministers and children in colorful native dress, the war raged elsewhere.

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 truck.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack on the camp in Idlib province, where some 2,000 internally displaced people had taken shelter from the fighting in nearby Aleppo and Hama provinces over the past year. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 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 from violence, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Earnest said it was too early to say whether Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces carried out the attack.

U.N. Humanitarian Chief Stephen O’Brien called for an independent investigation, saying if the camp was deliberately targeted it “could amount to a war crime.”

A double-suicide bombing in central Homs province also killed at least 10 civilians and a fierce rebel assault on a government position in the north overshadowed a shaky cease-fire imposed over Aleppo.