By Halit Suleyman

IDLIB,  (AA): At least 27 people were killed Thursday when a warplane targeted a refugee camp near the Syrian town of Sarmada in the Idlib province, according to reports from a nearby local field hospital.

An Anadolu Agency correspondent said the casualties reported by the hospital included women and children.

The White House denounced the airstrike as “indefensible,” with spokesman Josh Earnest saying there is “no justifiable excuse” for targeting innocent civilians who have already left their homes to flee violence.

Earnest also said it was too early to say whether Assad’s forces conducted the attack, but he added no U.S. or coalition aircraft were operating in the area at the time of the strike.

Earlier, eight had been reported killed and 30 injured, a Syrian Civil Defense official said.

Ahmed Shakir, a Civil Defense official, told Anadolu Agency that a regime warplane had targeted the Kamuna refugee camp leaving its tents in flames.

Residents from Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia in Syria fled their homes because of regime attacks on opposition-controlled areas and sought refuge in the Kamuna camp near Sarmada, around 20 kilometers from the Turkish border.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

[Photo: A view of the Kamuna refugee camp damaged after a Syrian regime warcraft targeted Kamuna refugee camp near the Sarmada town of Idlib province, Syria on May 05, 2016. Photographer: Abdulfetah Hüseyin/AA]