At least 18 Syrian civilians killed in suspected Russian air strikes

At least 18 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in "probably Russian" air strikes on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria Sunday, a monitoring group said.

The strikes hit the Idlib province town of Ariha, which is controlled by the Army of Conquest, a rebel alliance of mainly Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Several areas of the town were hit and rescue operations are under way with several critically wounded, the Britain-based group said.

Syrian activists, however, say the death toll of Sunday's strikes is over 40, reported Al Jazeera, adding that the site hit was a busy market.

The Army of Conquest alliance seized Ariha in May after heavy fighting with government forces.

Russia launched a bombing campaign in Syria on 30 September.

It says it targets the Islamic State (IS) group and other "terrorists," but critics accuse it of targeting moderate and rebel fighters more than IS.

Russian air strikes have previously hit several Army of Conquest positions in Idlib province.

On Saturday, one person was killed and 30 were wounded in rocket and mortar attacks on two neighbourhoods of the Syrian capital separately blamed on rebels and government forces, state media and the Observatory said.

The fatality and three of the injuries occurred when a rocket hit the mostly Christian neighbourhood of Bab Tuma in the Old City of Damascus, state news agency SANA reported, blaming "terrorists," the goverment word for rebels.

Meanwhile, 27 people were wounded by government mortar rounds fired into the northeastern rebel-held Qabun neighbourhood, the Observatory reported.

Some of them were seriously injured, said the monitoring group.

It was not immediately clear if Saturday's casualties were civilians.

Rebels frequently fire rockets on Damascus, which is largely in government hands, from positions on the outskirts of the city, often hitting residential areas.

Government forces also regularly attack rebels entrenched in the Eastern Ghouta region east of the capital, which has been devastated by fighting since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in March 2011.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the war.