Dushanbe, 27.10.2016. /NIAT «Khovar»/. As many as 22 children and six teachers were killed in an attack on a school compound in the Syrian city of Idlib, which may amount to a war crime if it were deliberate, Anthony Lake, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said, Sputnik reported.

According to Lake, the attack was the deadliest since the Syrian war began in 2011.

«Twenty-two children and six teachers were reportedly murdered today when their school compound was repeatedly attacked in Idlib, Syria. This is a tragedy. It is an outrage. And if deliberate, it is a war crime,» Lake said in a statement on Wednesday.

Since 2011, Syria has been engulfed in a civil war, following the protests that had turned violent, as part of the so-called Arab Spring. During the conflict, hundreds of thousands Syrians have been killed and millions more have been displaced.