Assad regime airstrikes kill 17 civilians in Idlib

Assad regime airstrikes kill 17 civilians in Idlib

Regime warplanes have targeted Idlib’s city center, Maarrat al-Numan and Saraqib districts and 11 villages in the morning hours, said the White Helmets.

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At least seven people were killed in the city center, six in the village of Binnish, four in the village of Al-Nerab, including two children while 50 others were injured. Following the airstrikes, civil defense teams launched search and rescue efforts.

Turkey announced Friday that a new cease-fire in Idlib rocked by violence — though “acts of aggression” are already officially banned — is set to start just after midnight on Sunday, Jan. 12.

Separately on Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced a cease-fire in the region taking effect at 2.00 p.m. local time (1200GMT).

Turkey and Russia agreed in September 2018 to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the zone, killing at least 1,300 civilians since the agreement.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to some four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces from throughout the war-weary country.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

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