Syria: dozens of pro-Turkish rebels killed by airstrikes in Idleb

In the Idlib enclave in northern Syria, nearly 80 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were killed in airstrikes targeting one of their camps.

Strikes blamed on Moscow (illustrative image).

Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP

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2 min

A sharp outbreak of violence takes place in the Idlib enclave in northern Syria, where nearly 80 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have been killed in airstrikes targeting one of their camps.

Witnesses and observers attribute this attack to Russia. 

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It had been eight months since

the Idlib region

had experienced such a deadly episode.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) and according to testimonies collected by Agence France Presse, the Russian air force targeted a training camp of Faylaq al-Cham, an affiliated Syrian rebel group to Turkey.

The strikes took place in the north of Idleb province, not far from the Turkish border.

According to a latest report by OSDH, which has a vast network of sources in warring Syria, “ 

78 fighters

 ” perished in the strikes and some 90 were wounded.

The toll could still be revised upwards, because some of the injured are " 

in critical condition

  ," said OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane.

In recent years, the Idlib region has seen several offensives launched by

Bashar al-Assad's

army

, supported by Russian forces.

Damascus displays its ambition to reconquer this bastion controlled by various Syrian armed groups: jihadists and also Turkey's auxiliaries.

Despite their contradictory alliances in Syria, Moscow and Ankara have repeatedly managed to negotiate truces in Idleb.

Every relaunch of hostilities threatens civilians.

Last spring, nearly a million people had to flee the fighting in the province.

To read: An American strike kills 17 jihadists in northwestern Syria

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