Syria regime strikes kill six civilians in Idlib: monitor

Six civilians were killed and more than 20 others wounded Saturday in Syrian regime army bombardment of the country's last major rebel bastion, a war monitor said.

"Regime forces directly targeted residential areas of the city of Idlib," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that industrial areas were also hit, as well as "residential areas in the town of Sarmin" nearby.

Six people, all of them civilians, were killed in Idlib and Sarmin, while "24 other civilians were wounded in different parts" of Idlib province, added the UK-based Observatory.

An AFP correspondent said two children were among the dead.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of Idlib province and parts of the neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. HTS is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

Parts of the rebel bastion have seen fierce fighting in recent days, according to the Observatory.

On Friday, it said 11 pro-regime forces and five HTS fighters had been killed after the Islamists launched an attack in neighbouring Aleppo province a day earlier.

Late last month, Syrian regime bombardment killed nine civilians, including six children, as they harvested olives in Idlib province, reported the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Civil war erupted in Syria after President Bashar al-Assad crushed peaceful anti-regime protests in 2011.

The conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions after spiralling into a devastating war involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.

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