• Tweeter

  • republish

An aerial view taken on August 3, 2019 shows destroyed buildings in the city of Khan Cheikhoun, in the southern Idlib countryside. Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP

The truce lasted only a few days, the Syrian army resumed Monday, August 5 its bombing of the province of Idleb, in the north-west of the country. The region is dominated by jihadist groups, but hundreds of Syrian civilians have perished in recent months under the bombs of the Damascus regime.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), government aviation raided the town of Khan Cheikhoun in Idleb province.

Earlier in the day, the official Syrian agency claimed that shells fired by "terrorist groups" had come close to an important military base used by the Russian army, allied with the regime of Bashar el- Assad.

In a statement, the Syrian army immediately announced the resumption of its operations on the province of Idleb, accusing Turkey, and the Syrian armed groups it supports, for not having respected the truce .

The ceasefire was announced Thursday night by the power of Damascus and immediately rejected by the leading jihadi group in Idleb Province, Hayat Tahrir al Sham . The latter refuses to withdraw from a "buffer zone" provided for in the agreement concluded a year ago between Turkey and Russia.

Since April, the shelling of the Russian-backed Syrian regime has killed nearly 800 people and displaced 400,000 people in Syria.

► See also: Syria: bombings in Idleb target "essentially health targets"