‘Worst days for the revolution’ as Assad bids to retake territory

THE Syrian government has increased pressure on the last-remaining rebel strongholds with a wave of air strikes and bombings, as it looks to reclaim every inch of the country.

Syrian and allied Russian aircraft pounded targets in the north-western region of Idlib on Sunday and yesterday, stepping up an offensive targeting the only province outside of regime control. The air strikes left at least 21 dead, including eight children and 11 members of the same family west of the town of Sinjar, according to monitors.

Meanwhile, an explosion near an Islamist rebel base on Sunday night killed 34 people, including 19 civilians.

The Syrian army lost Idlib, which borders Turkey, to insurgents when the provincial capital fell in 2015.

Idlib has been the scene of fierce clashes in recent weeks, as the army pushed to seize a pivotal road between Damascus and the city of Aleppo.

The province is part of a so-called de-escalation zone agreement struck between Russia and Iran, sponsors of Bashar al-assad, the Syrian president, and opposition ally Turkey. However, the regime has targeted all but one of the four areas covered.

At the same time, it has stepped up its bombing campaign on Eastern Ghouta, the besieged Damascus suburb. Shelling and bombardment of the enclave, where the humanitarian conditions have sharply deteriorated, has claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians in recent weeks.

“The regime is doing now what it did in Aleppo,” Abdulkafi al-hamdo, a teacher from Aleppo who was displaced to Idlib, told The Daily Telegraph. “The bombing is unbelievable in the south. We are seeing the worst days for the revolution now.”