Russian warplanes hitting Idlib

Monitoring Desk

IDLIB: Seven civilians have been killed by Russian airstrikes in the Khan Shaykhun district of Syria’s Idlib province, which is part of a de-escalation zone in which fighting is banned, a local civil-defense official told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

According to the official, three districts within the Idlib de-escalation zone — Khan Shaykhun, Saraqib and Kafr Nabl — were targeted by Russian warplanes.

All targeted areas are held by Syria’s armed opposition and the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed anti-regime group.

Mostafa Haj Youssef, director of Syria’s White Helmets civil-defense force in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency that Russian planes had struck the village of Tibbesh in northern Khan Shaykhun on three separate occasions.

“Seven civilians were kil-led and nine more were inju-red,” he said, going on to note that the casualties had included six children and one wo-man. Pointing out that search-and-rescue operations had since concluded, Youssef said that all injured civilians had been taken to nearby hospitals.

Located in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Idlib falls within a network of de-escalation zones — endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran — in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Nevertheless, since early last December, airstrikes on opposition-held parts of the province have seen an uptick, with over 100 civilians reportedly killed and scores more injured.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.