Russian Strikes Kill Civilians in Northwest Syria

Arab World

March 5th, 8:33am

Asharq Al-Awsat

A still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters and shot on March 2, 2020, shows Syrian army soldiers firing a weapon as they advance on the town of Kfar Nabl, Syria. Reuters TV/via REUTERS

Russian airstrikes Thursday killed at least 15 civilians including a child in the last major opposition bastion of Idlib in northwestern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strikes after midnight targeted an area where displaced Syrians had gathered outside the town of Maaret Misrin in Idlib province, it said. An AFP correspondent saw the bodies of some of the victims wrapped in thick winter blankets at a local hospital. A rescuer carried in the body of a baby girl, her mouth filled with gray debris and her pink pajamas caked in dust. At the site of the strikes, two large one-story out-buildings lay mostly in rubble near green orchards. The strikes destroyed the poultry farm where the displaced families had been living. Dozens of surviving white chickens picked through the dust, as rescuers operated bulldozers to comb through the debris. The Observatory said the toll was likely to increase as many wounded were in a critical state. Moscow-backed regime forces have since December waged a deadly battle against the militant-dominated Idlib region, causing almost a million people -- mostly women and children -- to flee their homes and shelters. Even before that offensive, Idlib was home to three million people, around half of them already displaced from other parts of the war-torn country.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2163991/russian-strikes-kill-civilians-northwest-syria