Air strikes kill seven in south Syria
BEIRUT: Air strikes yesterday killed seven civilians in a sensitive southwestern province of Syria bordering the Israelioccupied Golan Heights, a war monitor said.
The Damascus regime has been pounding Quneitra since Sunday in a bid to retake the southwestern province from rebels, after winning back most of the neighbouring governorate of Daraa in less than a month.
“Six civilians including two women and three children were killed in air strikes near Ain al-Tina” on Quneitra’s border with Daraa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It was not immediately clear whether the strikes were carried out by the regime or its Russian ally, the Britain-based monitor said.
The monitor determines who carried out strikes based on the type of aircraft and munitions used, locations and flight patterns.
In the west of the adjacent province of Daraa, Russian air raids killed one civilian near the village of AlAliya, it said.
“Since Tuesday morning, heavy Russian air strikes and barrel bombs dropped by the regime have been targeting an area straddling Quneitra and Daraa,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group led by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate, is present in that area, he said.
HTS jihadists are not included in a ceasefire between regime and rebels in Daraa announced earlier this month, which has allowed the regime to retake control of more than 90 per cent of the province. — AFP