World News for Students of English

10-08-2015 07:00

At least 27 people were killed and scores injured in the rebel-held town of Ariha in northwestern Syria today when an army fighter jet crashed into a busy market place. This footage, which was uploaded to social media, purportedly shows wreckage of the Syrian jet in the midst of an area that’s been turned to rubble.

Witnesses say the jet dropped a bomb on the town shortly before it crashed, and the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights has said most of those killed were civilians on the ground.

This man says, “This market was full of people and the people came here to get some money. Each person was at his stall but now all of them are under the rubble. The plane, the pilots and its missile all hit the market, they kept nothing of the market at all.”

Located in the rural Idlib Province, Ariha fell to a coalition of Islamist insurgents in May.

Fighting between state forces and rebels has been intensifying here, and the region has recently come under heavy aerial bombardment by the forces of President Bashar al Assad in a counter-offensive to regain lost ground.

Difficult words: scores (many), purportedly (probably), rubble (the broken parts of a building), stall (a small shop that is outside), rural (in the countryside), coalition (a temporary group of political parties), insurgent (a rebel), bombardment (heavy hitting).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com