Idlib [Syria]: As many as 14 people were killed and 30 others suffered injuries after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime launched airstrikes in northern Syria.
Regime forces launched air raids in Arihah town in Idlib province and the towns of Al Amqiyah, Morek, Hawash and Al-Zeyarah in Hama province, Anadolu News Agency quoted sources in the White Helmets civil defence agency saying.
In September last year, Turkey and Russia had agreed on a ceasefire in Idlib, where the two sides agreed that the province would act as a de-escalation zone and promised to refrain from staging acts of aggression in the demarcated area.
However, forces loyal to Assad’s regime have violated truce terms, launching several attacks in the de-escalation zone.
Both Russia and Syria have repeatedly denied allegations of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas or any campaign to paralyse the daily life in rebel-held regions.
The Russian-backed offensive has so far failed to make major inroads into the rebel territories in northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces, where the Islamic State is putting up fierce resistance in their last remaining bastion in Syria.
More than 370,000 people were killed and millions displaced in Syria since the beginning of the brutal civil war in March 2011.