Woman, two children killed in Russian strikes on Syria’s Idlib

Russian jet fighters bombed the Nahr al-Abyad area of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province early on Saturday morning, killing three people.

The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, reported that a woman and two children were killed when Russian jets struck a displaced people’s camp in the area, which is near the city of Jisr al-Shughour.

Ten civilians including six children were injured, some of them critically, according to the White Helmets.

Russian warplanes bombed other areas in Idlib province shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day on Idlib province, including the towns of Kensafra and Jedeida and the outskirts of Idlib city.

The previous day, two people were killed when Russian aircraft bombed a poultry farm in the village of Kafr Driyan north of Idlib city.

Idlib province is the last area of Syria to be held by anti-Assad rebels, after the Assad regime and Russia overran rebel-held areas of Daraa, Rif Dimashq and Homs province in 2018.

A ceasefire guaranteed by Turkey and Russia has been in place in the area since March 2020 but it is frequently violated by Russia and the regime, who have stepped up attacks on the area since the last round of Astana peace negotiations ended late in December.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that one person was killed in the regime-held city of Jableh on the Syrian coast Saturday night, as regime-allied militiamen fired guns in celebration of the new year.

It said that twenty other civilians were injured across Syria by celebratory gunfire. Regime-allied paramilitaries, known as shabeeha, often mark the beginning of the new year by firing weapons into the air, frequently injuring civilians and damaging property. Last year 30 people were injured on New Year’s Day.

More than 500,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since the Syrian conflict began in 2011 with the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.