DEIR SHARQI,Syria: Regime air strikes yesterday killed a woman and six of her children innorthwest Syria, a war monitor said, a day after Russian bombardment pummelleda nearby displacement camp. The air strike hit the family's one-story home inthe village of Dayr Sharqi in Idlib province, killing everyone inside, said theBritain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A photographer collaboratingwith AFP said he saw a man leaving the site of the blast, carrying the bloodycorpse of a young girl, her hair streaked with blood.
A rescue workercarried the dust covered body of a second child, he added. The photographersaid he also saw the charred remains of a third victim trapped underneath therubble, as rescue workers tried to retrieve it. Heightened air raids by theSyrian regime and its ally Moscow on the Idlib region - the last majoropposition bastion in Syria's northwest - have killed hundreds since the end ofApril. The latest air strikes on the village of Dayr Sharqi wounded three otherpeople, the Observatory said.
The attack came aday after Russian air raids killed 15 civilians, including six children in anearby displacement camp in the town of Hass, according to the war monitor. Twoother children were killed by Syrian regime air strikes in different parts ofsouthern Idlib on Friday, it said. A French foreign ministry statement releasedafter those attacks condemned "indiscriminate air strikes by the regimeand its allies in Idlib". It specifically mentioned the air strikes on thedisplacement camp and called "for an immediate cessation ofhostilities".
Over the pastweek, regime forces have advanced on the southern edges of Idlib province, withthe aim of capturing the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which lies on a key highwaycoveted by the regime. The highway runs through Idlib, connectinggovernment-held Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, which was retaken byregime forces from rebels in Dec 2016. Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate HayatTahrir al-Sham (HTS) has since January controlled most of Idlib province aswell as parts of neighboring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. Other rebelgroups are also present in the area.
A buffer zonedeal brokered by Russia and Turkey last year was supposed to protect theregion's three million inhabitants from an all-out regime offensive, but it wasnever fully implemented. Regime and Russian air strikes and shelling since lateApril have killed more than 850 civilians, according to the Observatory. TheUnited Nations says the violence has displaced more than 400,000 people.
AFPcorrespondents have reported seeing dozens of families flee fighting over thepast few days, heading north in trucks stacked high with belongings. Syria'sconflict has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions at home andabroad since starting with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in2011. - AFP