At least six civilians were killed when airstrikes by Russian and Bashar Assad regime warplanes targeted Syria's northwestern Idlib province on Wednesday, according to a local civil defense agency. Besides fatalities, the airstrikes left 10 civilians injured, the White Helmets said.
The warplanes struck the Saraqib district and several villages of Idlib, an opposition aircraft observatory said.
Additionally, in the first half of November, attacks by the Assad regime and Russia displaced some 40,000 civilians within the Idlib de-escalation zone, according to Syria's Response Coordination Group, a local NGO.
Despite eight months of calm provided by the Sochi deal between Turkey and Russia last year in September, the regime, backed by Moscow, intensified its attacks in April under the pretext of fighting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists holed up in Idlib. Since then, the situation has worsened, taking the lives of countless civilians. Residential areas have been destroyed by indiscriminate attacks, while numerous educational centers, health facilities and residential areas have collapsed or become unusable after being bombed.
Last weekend was particularly violent in Idlib with 96 people killed in 48 hours due to clashes between opposition forces and the Assad regime. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), regime forces supported by Russian fighter jets clashed with opposition groups on several fronts in the southeastern countryside of Idlib over the weekend.
The de-escalation zone is currently home to some 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces from throughout the country.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) released a report Sunday showing that a total of 277 civilians were killed in Syria during the month of November alone.
The report revealed that 72 of the killed civilians were children while 32 of them were women. It also showed that the majority of the civilians were killed by the regime or Russian forces.