Syria regime bombing kills family of five, as Aleppo and Idlib come under attack

An elderly woman and her four children were killed in Syrian regime bombing of an opposition-held village in Aleppo province on Wednesday night, according to reports.

The overnight bombardment targeted their home in Kafr Nuran, close to the front line in the west of Aleppo province.

"An elderly woman and four of her children were killed in shelling by regime forces on the outskirts of Kfar Nuran," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, also said a house was hit, killing "five civilians from the same family, including three women", and wounding another woman.

The family, like thousands of others living in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, had been displaced from elsewhere in Syria as a result of brutal regime assaults on opposition-held areas.

The bodies of the woman, her two daughters, and two sons were wrapped in white shrouds and taken to a location near the town of Atareb, an AFP correspondent said.

Also on Wednesday, a child was killed and six other people - including four children - were injured following renewed Syrian regime bombing of residential areas of Sarmin in Idlib province.

Regime forces used artillery and rocket launchers to bomb residential neighbourhoods and Al-Wahi Al-Sharif school in Sarmin, activist Moustafa Al-Mohammed told The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The bombing took place as pupils left a school in the area.

Al-Mohammed added that the town's main mosque was also damaged by rocket-propelled grenades.

Munir Al-Mustafa, deputy director of the White Helmets civil defence group confirmed that regime forces targeted civilian homes, the mosque, and a school.

The White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held parts of Syria, evacuated some of the injured to hospitals.

Sarmin was also bombed the previous day in an attack targeting neighbourhoods, a petrol station, and areas close to a school where children were leaving. A man and a woman were injured.

Idlib is located in northwest Syria and is one of a few regions of Syria still outside the control of the regime.

More than four million people live in rebel-held parts of northern and northwestern Syria.

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and rebel groups control the last parts of northwestern Syria, including areas of Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey was declared in Idlib after a regime offensive in March 2020, but it has been repeatedly violated by the regime and Moscow.

War erupted in Syria after regime leader Bashar Al-Assad's security forces crushed peaceful protests in 2011. With backing from Iran and Russia, Assad has recaptured most of the territory it lost to rebel groups at the start of the conflict.

The war has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

Agencies contributed to this report.