Idlib (Syrian News) Local sources informed that Russian aircraft carried out air strikes, on Wednesday, on the Christian-majority Qaina and Yaqobia Villages, in the western countryside of Idlib, Qasioun News reported.

The sources revealed that the two villages are Christian-majority, while pointed out that the air strikes were conducted on a church in one of the villages, killing a Christian child and injuring 5 others.

Meanwhile, other Russian air strikes were carried out on the areas of Bedama, Bashiria, Shatbarq, Sarmanya, Haloz, Ghasanya and Sad Al-Shaghr, in western Idlib, but no casualties were reported.

It is noteworthy that the Christian-majority village of Yaqobia witnessed a significant displacement movement since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011; however, several families stayed in the village despite the consequences of the Syrian war in the area.

Russia has supported the government of Syria since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, and started its military intervention in the country after an official request by the Syrian government for military aid against rebel and jihadist groups. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their assaults on the rebel-held province of Idlib, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people.

The activist-run Local Coordination Committees is reporting airstrikes on the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan, and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib.

The network says the Monday morning airstrikes killed three children. It blamed the attacks on Russian aircraft.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported strikes on Idlib city. It says 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes.

The Syrian Civil Defense first responder group said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday airstrikes across the province, including attacks on two rural marketplaces that killed dozens. </s> An air raid on the village of Kafr Batikh in Syria's northwestern opposition-held Idlib province killed 20 people on Wednesday including 16 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

Some 15 of those killed in the strike, in the eastern part of Idlib province, were from one family said the Britain-based war monitor.

The head of the Idlib branch of the rescue team White Helmets, Mustapha al-Haj-Youssef, told dpa that "children were at the school when the first strike took place, they got scared and ran to hide in a nearby cave.

"The second strike hit the cave directly, killing all the children inside, as well as a man and a woman," he added.

Al-Haj-Youssef said the second strike was "probably by a Russian plane."

The Observatory could not identify the identity of the raiding plane. </s> BEIRUT - Air strikes and government artillery killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women.

Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.

"The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib," Russia's TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

"Russian jets did not fly in the area on Nov. 8 and no missile strikes were carried out."

Syria's war pits President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

Idlib contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by rebels - including nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters including the former al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. (Reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; editing by Andrew Roche) </s> Idlib (Syria News) Civilians were either killed or wounded, on Thursday, in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes on Khan Sheikhon City, in southern Idlib.

Qasioun News reported that Russian warplanes conducted air strikes on the city of Khan Sheikhon, in southern Idlib, killing three civilians and wounding others.

Furthermore, Syrian regime warplanes carried out air strikes and dropped explosive barrels on the villages of Tariya and Tahtaya, in southern Idlib, causing material damage but no casualties were reported.

Syrian and Russian warplanes are intensifying their air strikes for the third day, where more than 140 air strike were conducted on the towns of Idlib and Hama.

Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and other opposition militias are carrying out military operations on the Syrian army locations, in northern Hama, and managed to capture several headquarters near the city of Maan. </s> By AFP

LEBANON: At least 14 children were among 21 people killed in an air strike in Syria's northwestern Idlib province at dawn on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The monitor said the strikes were believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes on the provincial capital Idlib city, which is controlled by jihadists and their Islamist rebel allies.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw two buildings completely destroyed, adding that the buildings had been housing people displaced from Aleppo province.

Local civil defence workers used bulldozers and their hands to clear large mounds of rubble.

Yahya Arjah, a member of the White Helmets group, said they had pulled two people alive from the rubble.

The Observatory said the strikes hit the Al-Qasur neighbourhood of the city, which is the capital of surrounding Idlib province.

It said 14 of the dead were members of a single family, and also said the dead included people displaced from the north of Aleppo province, which neighbours Idlib.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began six years ago with anti-government protests.

Russia began a military intervention in Syria in September 2015, and in the past has dismissed allegations of civilian deaths in its strikes. </s> BEIRUT: Air strikes pounded Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, including children, a war monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said planes, believed to be Russian, struck the northwestern city of Idlib and the town of Maarat Misrin in the countryside. </s> The Russian Defence Ministry on Tuesday denied allegations that its air strikes had killed civilians in Syria’s Idlib province, saying that in recent days it had only bombed Islamist militant fighters in the area.

Moscow said it was responding to assertions from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which on Monday said six civilians had been killed in the province, including a woman and a child.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised Moscow on Monday for the same reason, saying that recent Russian bombing in Idlib had killed civilians and moderate rebels and that this would be discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visited Turkey this week.

Putin is expected to meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday for talks on Syria.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement that the Russian and Syrian air forces did not bomb residential areas and accused the observatory of making up allegations and of sympathising with radical Islamist militants.

“In the last few days, after drone reconnaissance and confirmation via other channels, Russian planes struck 10 terrorist targets in Idlib Province,” Konashenkov said.

“These were militant bases, ammunition stores, armoured vehicles, rocket systems, and workshops fitting out ‘jihad jeeps’ which were located a long way from residential areas,” he said.

Konashenkov said Russia had data to confirm the accuracy of its attacks and the ministry on Tuesday published video of the strikes on Idlib to back its assertions that it had only bombed militant targets.

The targets struck had taken part in a militant offensive on Sept 18 which had surrounded 29 Russian military policemen who then had to be broken out in an operation backed by air power, he added. </s> Russian air strikes killed at least 13 civilians, including six children, Wednesday in Idlib province, in the first such raids since a September truce deal, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said around 60 people were also wounded in the air strikes that struck several areas in the northwestern province, which is Syria’s last major rebel bastion.

“Over the past 24 hours Russian aircraft have carried out dozens of raids targeting several regions in Idlib province, including the city of Idlib and the town of Saraqeb,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

“These are the first Russian air strikes against the province” since an accord struck by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September last year.

The truce deal was meant to stave off a planned offensive by the regime and its Russian backers that aid groups feared could spark the eight-year-old Syrian conflict’s worst humanitarian crisis to date.

Under the deal, opposition backer Turkey would exert its influence over anti-regime groups in the Idlib region to have them pull back fighters and heavy weapons from a demilitarized zone.

The government assault on the last major bastion of rebel forces has been held off but the deal’s provisions have not been implemented. According to Abdel Rahman, a prison in a suburb of Idlib city was hit on Tuesday in the Russian strikes, sparking a jailbreak by dozens of inmates.
Russian aircraft carry out air strikes on the Christian-majority Qaina and Yaqobia villages, in the western countryside of Idlib, killing a child and injuring 5 others.