Regime attacks kill 12 in Syria’s de-escalation zones

IDLIB (AA): Twelve civilians were killed in regime airstrikes in Syria’s northwestern de-escalation zones, sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency said on Wednesday. The attacks targeted the towns of Maarat Al-Numan and Maarat Herma in Idlib province, the sources said. Also, regime forces and Iran-back terrorist group shelled the town of Khan Sheykhun and the villages of Al-Kassabiyya, Abdin, Karasaa, Kafr Sajna and Al-Naqeer.

The new deaths brought to more than 455 civilians, who have lost their lives in Idlib since April 25. Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, half are displaced from other parts of the war-torn country. Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited. The Syrian regime, however, has consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone. Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.