Attacks by regime, Russia kill 10 civilians in N. Syria

IDLIB, Syria

At least 10 civilians were killed in attacks carried out by Russian and Syrian regime forces in the de-escalation zone in northern Syria, the White Helmets civil defense agency said on Thursday.

According to Mustafa Haj Yusuf, head of the White Helmets in Idlib province, 10 people were killed in the airstrikes on late Wednesday.

Artillery and airstrikes targeted residential areas in Idlib province's Khan Sheikhoun, Maarat Al-Numan, Bidama and Madaya towns besides Maaret Herma village, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent.

The attacks also targeted Hama province's Ltamenah and Kafr Zita towns.

Mohamed Katoub, an official with the Syrian American Medical Society told Anadolu Agency that a nurse and an ambulance driver were killed in airstrikes on a medical center in Maaret Herma.

Katoub said the medical center was targeted by 17 airstrikes.

Meanwhile, sources with the White Helmets confirmed to Anadolu Agency the death of one of their members and two workers of the medical center.

Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

The de-escalation zone is currently inhabited by about four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced by regime forces from their cities and towns throughout the war-weary country in recent years.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat