Four children among 28 civilians killed in airstrikes on Syria safe zone
Entire apartment blocks flattened by bombardment
BEIRUT: At least 28 civilians were killed in airstrikes on northwestern Syria where a planned safe zone has been overshadowed by a bombing campaign against terrorists, a monitor said on Saturday.
Four children were among the dead in Friday night’s strikes on the town of Armanaz, in Idlib province near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based watchdog had earlier reported 12 dead in the strikes on the town in Harem district around 20 km northwest of the provincial capital Idlib.
An AFP correspondent who toured Armanaz on Saturday morning said entire apartment blocks had been flattened by the bombardment.
Surge in raids
The Observatory said it could not immediately determine whether the strikes had been carried out by warplanes of the Syrian regime or its ally Russia.
But they are the latest in an intensifying air campaign carried out by the two regimes against extremists who control most of the province and are not party to a safe zone deal brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The surge in bombing raids has forced hospitals in the province to close, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday.
They were triggered by an offensive by extremists led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate launched against regime-held villages in neighboring Hama province on Sept.19.
The terrorists control nearly all of Idlib province after driving out former radical allies earlier this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to step up efforts to establish a safe zone in Idlib as part of a wider agreement struck in May.
Three other safe zones have already been set up — in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, parts of the south and some areas of the central province of Homs.
De-escalation agreement
But in some of those areas too the fighting has continued. Shelling by the army killed at least 21 civilians in Eastern Ghouta on Saturday, more than half of them children, the Observatory said.
The de-escalation agreement excludes both the Daesh group and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the alliance dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate.
Daesh is under attack in its remaining strongholds in eastern Syria by both Russian-backed regime forces and US-backed fighters. On Thursday, it mounted a counterattack against government forces along their supply lines through the desert to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
At least 128 troops and militia were killed on Thursday and Friday as the army battled to restore control, the Observatory said.
State media have reported the Daesh counterattack but have made no mention of the army’s losses.