Syrian regime bombs northwest Syria 'more than 84 times' since earthquake

The Syrian regime bombed the Bab al-Hawa highway in the northwest province of Idlib on Tuesday, a key route used by the UN to transport aid into the area from Turkey.

The regime launched over 30 rockets and artillery shells at different villages in Idlib, injuring a woman and her daughter, local sources told sister site Al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Despite the bombing, the flow of goods through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing was not interrupted on Wednesday, with the crossing administration reporting the continual passage of aid convoys.

The bombing comes in the wake of the devastating 6 February earthquake, which left more than 50,000 dead in Syria and Turkey and destroyed thousands of buildings in northwest Syria.

The White Helmets, a local first responders group, called for an immediate halt to all Russian and Syrian bombings in the northwest so that search and rescue missions could proceed unhindered.

Despite the call for a ceasefire, the Syrian regime has bombed northwest Syria more than 84 times since the earthquake – with the majority of strikes in densely populated areas.

Due to damage to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing during the earthquake, no UN aid reached Idlib for the first four days following the disaster.

The White Helmets condemned the lack of international assistance and said that the UN had not reached out to it to offer any assistance in the first days after the quake.

The UN said that it needed the permission of the Syrian regime to send aid to Syria through border crossings other than Bab al-Hawa.

The regime at first insisted that aid should flow through Damascus rather than the Turkish border, but relented after a week and opened two new border crossings into north Syria for three months.

Aid groups in northwest Syria have said that despite the opening of new border crossings, the majority of international aid has flowed to regime territory.

Northwest Syria has received just 13 per cent of all aid coming to Syria since the earthquake, according to local aid group Syria Response Coordinators.

The death toll in non-regime territories of Syria is more than five times that of regime territories, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Tuesday.

The Syrian regime has also seen an unprecedented flurry of international diplomatic contact, with the Egyptian, Jordanian and UAE foreign ministers visiting Damascus after the earthquake.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Tuesday night that countries should not normalise ties with the Syrian regime without "pressing for accountability for the crimes that the Syrian authorities have committed."

The Syrian regime was made an international pariah for the multitude of war crimes it committed against its population following the 2011 Syrian uprising.