A Syrian maternity hospital in a rebel-held area of Idlib province was extensively damaged on Friday after a direct hit, international charity Save the Children, which supports the hospital, said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria's five-year-old conflict, said air strikes hit the hospital and also a civil defense building.

The number of casualties is not yet known, a spokesman for Save the Children said.

The hospital in Kafer Takhareem, the only maternity facility for about 70 miles (110 km), works with around 1,300 women and children a month and delivered some 340 babies last month, the spokesman said.