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BEIRUT: Regime and Russian fire has killed at least six civilians in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province, a war monitor said on Saturday, two weeks after Moscow declared a cease-fire in the opposition-dominated region. The truce, which brought a halt to four months of devastating bombardment on Idlib province by the Syrian regime and its ally Russia, had largely held apart from sporadic artillery fire and airstrikes.
But on Tuesday, Russia carried out its first airstrikes in the area since the cease-fire began, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Friday, regime rocket fire on the towns of Maaret Al-Numan and Kafranbel in southern Idlib province killed five civilians including a child, the Observatory said.
A sixth civilian was killed in a Russian airstrike in the rural west of the province, it added.
That brought to 11 the number killed since the cease-fire came into effect, according to the Britain-based monitor, which has a network of contacts across the war-torn country.
The Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate controls most of Idlib as well as parts of neighboring Aleppo and Latakia provinces.
The region of around 3 million people, many of them displaced by fighting in other areas, is one of the last holdouts of opposition to forces backing Syria’s Bashar Assad.
The Observatory on Saturday reported regime fire in various parts of southern Idlib, including close to a Turkish military observation post.
Russian air raids have also targeted hard-line fighters in Idlib’s western countryside and nearby parts of Latakia, it said.
The cease-fire is the second since Damascus escalated its operations in the area in April, which have since left at least 980 civilians dead, according to Observatory figures, and which the UN says have forced more than 400,000 people to flee.
Besieged
Meanwhile, Syrian state media is accusing militant groups of preventing civilians on Saturday from leaving the last opposition-held stronghold in the country’s northwest through a corridor government troops are securing.
The government has used such passageways before to allow residents to flee areas it is besieging ahead of a military offensive.
Last month, Syrian officials declared a “humanitarian corridor” at the southern tip of the stronghold while troops besieged the area.
State-run TV Al-Ikhbariya said no civilians came out via the corridor from Idlib province, controlled by militants dominated by opposition groups, for the second straight day. Al-Ikhabariya said 20 vehicles were barred by militants from reaching the Abu Dhuhur crossing, including by shooting at those looking to leave.
State news agency SANA also said militants shot at motorists in Idlib, denying them an exit. There was no independent confirmation.
The Abu Dhuhur crossing links between opposition-controlled Idlib, home to nearly 3 million people, and government-controlled areas. State television stations showed buses and medical teams waiting at the crossing.
UN and aid groups question the government’s use of such corridors amid military offensives and sieges and in the absence of any independent monitors. The UN says such exit corridors should be guaranteed from all sides to allow people to use them voluntarily.
Syrian forces have made major ground advances on opposition-held Idlib in recent weeks despite a short-lived cease-fire. The government military offensive since late April has forced nearly half a million people to be displaced within the stronghold, and left about 1,000 killed.
David Miliband, who heads the aid group International Rescue Committee, told a UN panel on northwest Syria on Friday that the breakdown of the recent cease-fire “makes us fear that the worst may be yet to come.” He called for an immediate end to the violence against civilians and an accountability mechanism to investigate attacks against civilians.
IRC supports 24 health facilities and 19 ambulances across northwest Syria, including eight who came under attack. Since April, 51 health facilities have come under attack, mostly in government airstrikes.