18 Killed in Latest Escalation in Idlib

Syrian and Russian air forces returned to escalate their shelling on Idlib governorate with a mounting number of civilian lives due to the intensified shelling over the last 24 hours.

The Civil Defense Force (a rescue teams) provided North Press with a statistics on the number of deaths in the past few hours, which reached to /18/ killed including /10/ children and /7/ women in raids on the city of Ma’arat al-Nu’man, and towns and villages of Sarja, Al-Bara, Al-Hubait and Mseibin, south of Idlib.

More than 20 others were injured in the same aerial bombardment, and in strikes targeting Maarzita, Jabal al-Arbaeen, Ihsim and Bidama in southern and western Idlib countryside.

New areas of agricultural crops have also been subjected to fires due to the shelling on towns and villages in Idlib governorate, as well as it caused a massive destruction of public and private property.

On Thursday morning, Syrian air force increased its strikes targeting Jabal Zawiya and Ma’arat al-Nu’man, causing the death of two children and a woman and wounding others.

The raids and shelling also targeted Ariha, areas of Tramla, Hass, Jabal al-Arbaeen, Kafr Mous, Faqie, Sarja and Kafroma, in Idlib countryside.

While North Press reported, a decline in the pace of the clashes in the northwest of Hama, with a relative calm prevailed the region, in parallel with targeting Kafr Nabudah surroundings by the Syrian governmental forces.

Russian reconnaissance aircraft and other Syrian one continued to fly constantly in the airspace of Idlib and Hama governorates to monitor the movements of factions, and military and civilian areas.