Airstrikes kill 8 civilians in Syria’s Idlib

By Burak Karacaoglu and Esref Musa

IDLIB, Syria

At least eight civilians were killed by airstrikes Wednesday in Syria’s Idlib province, according to the White Helmets.

The attacks targeted the village of Maar Zita, said Mustafa Haj Yusuf, director of the White Helmets in Idlib.

“Eight people were killed in a cave in Maar Zita village in Idlib where people had been sheltering to protect themselves from the attacks,” Yusuf told Anadolu Agency.

Yusuf pointed out that all of the victims were from the same family, including five children.

Located in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Idlib was declared a "de-escalation zone" last May, in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Syria has just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.