Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, dig through the rubble of a mosque in al-Jineh, Aleppo province

The US military today admitted carrying out an airstrike in northwest Syria that local activists said killed scores of civilians at a prayer meeting in a mosque.

A statement by the American Central Command said US forces had “conducted an air strike on an al-Qaeda in Syria meeting” in Idlib province, killing several “terrorists”. Officials said that intelligence had confirmed that terrorists had been meeting to plan future activities.

They later clarified that the statement referred to a strike on Thursday evening on the village of al-Jineh just over the provincial border in west Aleppo province. Rescue workers said they had found the bodies of 42 people, some of them boys.

Residents said the men and teenagers in the mosque at the time were not