Moscow today denied any involvement in bloody air strikes on a Syrian school as its relations with the West took another hit and the EU slapped more sanctions on its ally Damascus. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate probe into Wednesday's attack on the school in rebel-held Idlib province that he said "may amount to a war crime".<br/><br/>Russia denied having played any role in air strikes on the school that the UN children's agency UNICEF said killed 22 students and six teachers. The tensions mounted a day after the United States and Britain said they expected an assault to drive the Islamic State jihadist group out of Raqa, its de facto capital in Syria, within the next few weeks.<br/><br/>Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Russian Federation has nothing to do with this with this attack and demanded an immediate investigation. Zakharova said claims that Russian and Syrian warplanes had conducted the deadly air strikes in Idlib on Wednesday were "a lie".<br/><br/>According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, "warplanes – either Russian or Syrian – had carried out six strikes" in the Idlib provincial village of Hass, including on a school complex.