Russian airstrikes killed at least five civilians, including three children, in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, a monitoring group reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that at least 10 people were also injured in the bombardment by Russian warplanes in the rural part of the north-western province of Idlib, the last opposition bastion in the country. In 2019, Russian-supported Assad regime forces launched a major offensive in Idlib, raising concerns over the safety of the civilians there.
Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey has been supporting opposition forces since an uprising started against Assad's arbitrary rule. Russia and Turkey agreed on a cease-fire for the long-disputed area in March of last year, and since then violence in the Idlib region has decreased. Nevertheless, the area has repeatedly come under shelling attacks by government troops and their allies.
The Idlib region is home to nearly 3 million people, two-thirds of them displaced from other parts of the country.
Nearly 75% of the total population in the opposition-held Idlib region depends on humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs as 1.6 million people continue to live in camps or informal settlements, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Apart from the threat of constant regime attacks, civilians face also the threat of COVID-19.
Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Over the past decade, around half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million had to flee their homes.
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further territorial gains and crushing the opposition. The regime has bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, displacing almost half the country's population.
