Nearly 80 Syrian rebels affiliated with Turkey were killed on Monday, October 26, in strikes attributed to Russia against their camp in Idleb, Syria, the deadliest escalation in this region in eight months.

In the complex war in Syria, Russia is helping Bashar al-Assad's regime militarily and Turkey is supporting rebel groups in Idleb province, the last major jihadist and rebel stronghold in the north-west of the country.

The two foreign powers have repeatedly negotiated precarious ceasefires for this area and a truce has been held since March, despite sporadic clashes in this region near the Turkish border.

>> To see: Turkey: Erdogan's wars

Airstrikes attributed to Russia by a rebel official and by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) targeted a training camp in Faylaq al-Cham in the region of Jabal al-Douayli in the north of the province of Idleb.

According to a latest report from this NGO, which has a vast network of sources in warring Syria, "78 combatants" 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.

"This record is the heaviest since the entry into force of the truce" in the province of Idleb, he added.

Dozens of fighters were in the camp at the time of the strikes.

"Military positions, villages and localities targeted"

Seif al-Raad, a spokesman for the National Liberation Front, a coalition of rebel groups affiliated with Ankara to which Faylaq al-Cham is a member, confirmed to AFP Russian strikes, which left "dead and wounded ".

He denounced the "violations" by the Moscow air force and by the forces of the regime of the truce with "military positions, villages and localities targeted".

About half of the Idleb region is under the control of the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTS), the ex-Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda also present in areas of adjacent territories in the neighboring provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo.

The truce adopted in March had stopped yet another offensive by the regime, which had succeeded in a few months in nibbling a little more of the territories beyond its control.

The offensive, marked by almost daily strikes by the Syrian and Russian air forces, claimed the lives of at least 500 civilians, according to the OSDH.

It had also displaced nearly a million inhabitants, mainly settled in informal camps on the border with Turkey.

Among them, nearly 235,000 people have chosen to return, taking advantage of the truce, according to the UN.  

The war in Syria has claimed more than 380,000 lives and forced millions of people to flee.

With AFP

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