At least 10 children have been killed after two schools were hit in a series of air strikes carried out by the Syrian government in Damascus and villages in the Idlib province, sources say.

Military jets dropped barrel bombs on a school in the town of Safohan in Idlib province on Tuesday, killing seven children.

In the rebel held area of Douma in Damascus, another school was hit. At least five people were killed, incuding three children.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said that civilians often beared the brunt of these retaliatory attacks conducted by the Syrian government.

The attacks on Tuesday come after at least four Syrian school children were killed and 10 others wounded on Monday when a government air strike hit their bus in the northwest of the country, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of those wounded and killed were under the age of 10.

“The toll could rise as there are serious injuries,” it said.

Idlib is largely in the hands of Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise, Al-Nusra Front, which in recent weeks has fended off advances by rival rebel groups and now holds two strategic military bases in the province.

Syria’s air force is a significant tool in the arsenal of President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have fought a devastating conflict against rebels since 2011. Al Jazeera