Air strikes in Idlib province kill 7 members of one family
Syrian government and Russian air strikes pounded the southern edge of a rebel stronghold in the country’s north-west yesterday, killing at least seven members of one family.
The air strikes were coupled with ground clashes as the Syrian government, backed by Russia, pushed ahead with a slow months-long offensive to chip away at territory on the periphery of the rebel enclave.
Idlib and surrounding areas are home to about three million civilians, most of whom have been displaced there by fighting elsewhere in the country, and is dominated by hardline insurgents.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and her six children were killed in an air strike that hit their home in Deir Al Sharqi village in southern Idlib.
Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Observatory, said the children were all under 18 years old. Their father survived because he was not home at the time of the strike.
The activist-operated Thiqa news agency also reported the casualties and showed images of rescuers attempting to lift the body of a young boy trapped under the rubble.
Syria’s Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said the village of Deir Al Sharqi was hit with four air strikes that resulted in the killing of the Hammoud family.
A volunteer from the group, which operates in opposition areas, said the strikes hit a main road in southern Idlib, and that a rescue team came under attack as they were putting out a fire caused by one of the strikes.
By early afternoon yesterday, the Civil Defence team had recorded 31 strikes, including 18 suspected Russian air strikes.
Thiqa news agency said the barrage of air strikes sparked a new wave of displacement inside the enclave. Residents have been moving towards safer areas near the border with Turkey.
Overnight air strikes in the town of Hass hit a gathering of civilians who had escaped the violence further south, killing at least 13, also including children.
The United Nations has been calling for respecting the lives of civilians and medical and humanitarian workers, saying that the death toll is “rising every day”.
In the past three and half months, the UN documented 500 civilian deaths and said 42 attacks on health care facilities were reported. The UN said a paramedic and an ambulance driver were killed in air strikes on Wednesday.
The Idlib stronghold sits on the Turkish border and is surrounded by government and Turkish-controlled areas.
Already more than 450,000 people have been displaced inside the rebel-controlled area by the fighting, which began on April 30.
Syrian troops, backed by Russia, have intensified their military push in recent days, advancing into the territory and gaining control of a number of villages on the southern edge.
State media reported that Syrian troops killed more than two dozen rebel fighters in southern Idlib yesterday during clashes.