Seven people, including civilians, were killed and 15 others injured Thursday by Russian strikes in the province of Idleb, the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold in Syria. The strikes hit a stone quarry and a house west of the city of Idlib, according to the same source, without further details.
Seven people, including civilians, were killed and 15 others injured Thursday by Russian strikes in the province of Idlib, the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold in Syria, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). . At least four of those killed are civilians, said the NGO based in Britain, but with a large network of sources in Syria.
The strikes hit a stone quarry and a house west of the city of Idlib, according to the same source, without further details. The OSDH said it was trying to find out if the other victims were also civilians. An AFP photographer reported seeing a large cloud of smoke following one of the strikes on the quarry as well as a nearby house.
The region is under a ceasefire
He also saw ambulances transporting victims. Parts of Idlib province and segments of neighboring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces are dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
The region has been under a ceasefire since March 2020, following a three-month regime offensive that displaced nearly a million people, according to the UN. Despite repeated violations, the ceasefire has generally held. Russia, an ally of Syria for decades, is the main support of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and has intervened militarily since 2015 in the country.
Triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, the war in Syria has claimed nearly half a million lives, according to the OSDH, and displaced several million people.