Civilians in northwestern Syria's Idlib, where a demilitarized zone was established recently, Friday protested the Bashar Assad regime for its previous attacks in the region.

Thousands of people in various opposition-held areas, particularly Idlib, gathered following the Friday prayer to protest the Syrian regime and ask for the release of political prisoners.

The Assad regime has been preparing a full-scale military operation on Idlib, the last major opposition stronghold.

Turkey and the international community warned that such action would result in a humanitarian catastrophe. Eventually, Turkey and Russia signed a deal last month in Sochi, where they agreed to create a 15-20 kilometer-wide buffer zone along the line of contact between the opposition fighters and regime troops by Oct. 15. The crowd in Idlib carried anti-regime banners in multiple languages as well as the Free Syrian Army (FS

A) and Turkish flags while expressing their gratitude to Turkey for its efforts in bringing peace to the region. The crowd also demanded a peaceful Syria without the Bashar Assad regime. Idlib, a province now hosting nearly 3.5 million people, was originally home to about 750,000 people. Over the past three years, thousands of people from different parts of Syria took shelter in the province which was deemed a safe zone under an agreement with the regime.