Nine civilians killed in airstrikes as Syrian regime and Russia ignore UN condemnation

The military of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies killed nine civilians during their bombardment of a northwestern Syrian region on Sunday.

The rebel-held Idlib region is supposed to be protected from a massive government offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but it has come under increasing fire by the regime and its backer Moscow since April.

Regime air strikes on Sunday killed five civilians in the town of Ariha, local activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Syrian Civil Defence said that 21 people were injured.

On social media, Syrians shared images of a physically and emotionally exhausted doctor, covered in dust and blood after treating the injured. 

He was identified as Mohammed Saeed al-Khateeb, who came to Ariha as a refugee from the town of Tasil in Daraa province, which fell to the regime in July 2018.

Russian raids, meanwhile, killed two civilians in northern Hama while shelling and air strikes by the regime also killed two other civilians elsewhere in the northwest.

The bombardment comes a day after regime and Russian air strikes on the region killed 15 civilians, including 11 in Ariha.

Some three million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country, live in the Idlib region.

Attacks by the Syrian regime and its ally Russia have claimed more than 740 lives there since late April.

The UN says more than 400,000 people have been displaced and criticised the international community for its indifference to civilian casualties. Crowded markets, hospitals, water plants, and civilian homes have been among the regime and Russia’s targets.

The war in Syria has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests.

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