At least 18 civilians were killed yesterday as Syria’s regime intensified its bombardment of Idlib province, the last militant stronghold in the country’s northwest, a monitor said.
Idlib and parts of the neighbouring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate. Eighteen civilians, including six children, were killed yesterday in air strikes and missile attacks on Idlib province, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Ten of them, including four children, died in the town of Ariha, he said, adding that at least 47 people were wounded across the province.
The deaths come a day after regime air strikes killed 12 civilians in the same province, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
An AFP correspondent in Ariha said White Helmet first responders were seen searching for survivors in the rubble of a building hit in yesterday’s bombardment. “It was indescribable. Wounded women and children lying on the ground, destruction everywhere, shops damaged,” said Mohamed Said, a resident at the site of the raid.
The first responders were lifted to an upper floor of the badly damaged building in the bucket of an excavator machine in an attempt to rescue a child who had been buried under blocks of concrete.
But the child was among those who died, the AFP correspondent said.
The Observatory says more than 250 civilians have been killed in the spike in violence since the end of April.
More than 200,000 civilians have already been displaced by this upsurge of violence, the United Nations has said.