Nine members of the same family killed in suspected Russian strikes in northwest Syria

Suspected Russian warplanes killed nine members of the same family Syria's Kafr Taal on Tuesday, following another massacre in the same Aleppo town a day earlier.

Russian struck the town of Al-Bara in Idlib province on Tuesday, killing two men and injuring two women and two children.

A child and woman were also killed in a Russian bombardment of the town of Taqad in western Aleppo province.

Several other towns in rebel-held northwestern Syria were also targeted with no reports of casualties.

Those killed in Kafr Taal included six children and a 22-year old man. The Syrian Civil Defence said that two airstrikes hit the town.

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Ten people, including five children, were killed in Russian and regime airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib province on Monday. The Syrian Civil Defence recorded a total of 20 airstrikes and 60 artillery bombardments on that day.

Russia declared a "ceasefire" in Idlib province earlier this month, only to break it a few days after it went into effect. Moscow and the regime have previously declared ceasefires and signed up to "de-escalation" agreements covering rebel-held parts of Syria only to violate them arbitrarily.

The UN says that over 350,000 people have been displaced by Russian and regime airstrikes on Idlib province since the middle of December. They join hundreds of thousands of people displaced in the province from previous rounds of indiscriminate airstrikes.

Syrian activists have reported that children have died as a result of the cold winter conditions currently affecting north-western Syria.

Many refugees are sheltering in makeshift tents without heating because there is no room left in existing refugee camps and humanitarian agencies are unable to cope with the situation.

Northwestern Syria is the last area controlled by anti-Assad rebels. It covers most of Idlib province as well as small parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.

Last week senior Assad regime official Ali Mamlouk informed the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency that the regime wishes to capture the whole of Idlib province.

Aid agencies fear that a humanitarian catastrophe will befall the province, which is home to 3.5 million people - many of them sympathetic to the opposition - if this happens. The regime has previously detained and killed opposition activists in other parts of Syria it has captured from rebels, in violation of reconciliation agreements.

The Syrian conflict began in 2011 after the Assad regime brutally suppressed pro-democracy protests.