Kafranbel (Syria): Air strikes by Syrian regime ally Russia have killed 10 civilians including five children in a northwestern jihadist bastion, a monitor said Monday, hours after Moscow announced a ceasefire there.
Clashes between regime forces and jihadists raged Monday on the edge of the region held by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, following the deadly air raids overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Idlib region controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is supposed to be protected from a government offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but regime and Russian bombardment has increased there since late April.
The Observatory said Russian air strikes Sunday night had killed five children, four women, and one man in the town of Kafranbel in Idlib province. The air strikes hit near a hospital in the town, knocking it out of service, the Britain-based monitor said.
A correspondent of this agency saw five homes on the edges on the town that were destroyed or damaged after the strikes. Survivors picked through the debris to save the belongings they could, the reporter said, while a young man covered in dust from head to toe leant against a wall, shell-shocked after his father was killed.
The Observatory said six other civilians also died in bombardment by regime forces in other parts of the Idlib region, Sunday.
AFP