14 civilians, including children, were killed in continuous aerial bombardment of Idlib province in north-west Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, yesterday, while the cars of the Russian military police were attacked by an improvised explosive device while traveling in the province of Daraa, south of Syria.
The province of Idlib and adjacent areas, where about three million people live, to escalate the bombing of Syria and Russia for more than two months, accompanied by fierce fighting concentrated in the northern Hama.
The Syrian Observatory said that «the warplanes of the Syrian army forces and its ally Russia continues to target areas in the southern countryside Idlib», pointing out that »the Russian bombing long after midnight, a gathering of displaced people near the city of Khan Sheikun».
According to the observatory, eight civilians, including four children, who had fled in the past few weeks from their home in the northern Hama countryside were killed by the shelling and clashes. The shelling, which continued yesterday morning, killed one civilian and a pregnant woman, 10 others were injured in the town of Kufriya, east of Idlib. The director of the observatory Rami Abdul Rahman said that the dead were also displaced persons who were forced to leave their former areas in the framework of settlement agreements with the Syrian army forces.
In the town of Kafriya, an AFP correspondent saw the body of the pregnant woman and the fetus, which came out of his mother's womb. The shelling lasted several days in the town. The wounded, including children, were taken to nearby hospitals.
The observatory said the death toll was high due to the presence of wounded in serious cases, and two people were killed in land bombardment of the Syrian army forces in northern Hama.
The new raids followed the killing of 13 civilians in the shelling of the area, including three killed in the city of Idlib, and this is the first time the city was targeted during the latest escalation, after the bombing was limited to the former parties.
The shelling was accompanied by continued clashes between Syrian army forces and armed factions in the northern Hama countryside, which have killed more than 120 people since Wednesday night.
The province of Idlib and its environs witnessed a relative calm after the signing of the agreement «Russian - Turkish» last September, provided for the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the army forces and factions, has not been completed and the province of Idlib in recent weeks the most intense fighting since the signing of the agreement.
Since the start of the escalation at the end of last April, more than 590 civilians have been killed by the Syrian and Russian raids, while 45 civilians have been killed in shelling of armed factions on areas controlled by Syrian army forces.
The escalation has also pushed more than 330,000 people to flee their areas, according to the United Nations, which has estimated that more than 25 medical facilities have been hit by air strikes since the end of April.
In addition, Russian military police vehicles were attacked yesterday when an improvised explosive device was detonated while traveling in the southern province of Daraa.
The sources said that an explosive device planted on the road between the city of Bosra al-Sham and the town of Al-Sahwa in the eastern countryside of Daraa, exploded during the passage of a Russian military convoy of three cars belonging to the Russian military police, adding that the Russian military convoy was not affected by the bombing.