Syria regime fire kills seven civilians in Idlib market, says rights monitor

Syria regime fire kills seven civilians in Idlib market, says rights monitor
The ceasefire in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib proves not to hold as Assad regime forces bombard civilian targets with deadly rockets.
2 min read
25 October, 2019
Russian and regime forces have killed thousands in Idlib in the past year [Getty]
Syria regime rocket fire killed seven civilians in an olive market for olives in an opposition bastion in the country's northwest Thursday, a war monitor said.

The bombardment fell on a village north of the town of Jisr al-Shughur in the opposition-controlled Idlib region, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Idlib region currently houses about three million residents, half of them displaced from other parts of the country.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched a blistering campaign against Idlib in April, killing around 1,000 civilians and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

But a ceasefire announced by key government ally Russia has largely held since late August, though the Observatory says skirmishes persist.

Read more: What will be the future of the Syrian Democratic Forces?

Assad on Tuesday said Idlib was the main front remaining to end Syria's eight-year civil war, as he made his first trip since 2011 to visit troops in the region.

He spoke as his forces were deploying in Kurdish-majority areas to the east of Idlib to help stave off a deadly Turkish offensive.

Syria's war has killed 370,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since beginning in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-Assad protests.

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