IDLIB, Dec 18 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian government and Russian air strikes killed at least 17 people in rebel-held northwestern Syria, witnesses and rescuers said.
The northwest corner of the country, including the Idlib region, is the last significant swathe of Syrian territory, still in insurgent hands after eight and a half years of war.
Russia, which backed President Bashar Assad against rebels and militants, and Turkey, long a supporter of rebels, co-sponsored a conflict “deescalation” deal for the area earlier this year, that has since faltered.
Two members of local rescue services said, at least four people were killed and scores hurt when aerial bombs fell on a major market in the rural town of Maasran. Another six civilians lost their lives when the town of Bdama was hit, they said.
A further five people were killed in the nearby town of Telmanas, in the southeastern part of Idlib province, according to Abdullah Al-Halabi of the local rescue service.
Air strikes on several villages in the area killed another two people and injured scores, he added.
The Idlib region is home to hundreds of thousands of people, who fled other parts of Syria as government forces wrested back large areas of the country, following Russian intervention in early 2015.
There has been no major ground offensive since Turkish-backed rebel forces retook territory seized by Moscow and its Syrian allies, in rural parts of east Idlib last month, rebels and diplomats say.
Russian-backed forces kept up air strikes on populated areas to wear down rebel forces that have so far repelled government attempts to seize back the terrain.
While the government vowed to recover all of Idlib, its immediate priority is to retake key prewar highways that pass through the province, to shore up Syria’s sanctions-battered economy, Western diplomatic sources say.– NNN-SANA