There are concerns that the number of deaths could rise as the condition of some wounded civilians were critical

File photo shows civil defence members extinguishing a fire broke out after Russian air strikes hit Idlib's Ma’arrat al-Numan district, Syria on February 7, 2018. (AA)

At least seven civilians were killed in airstrikes carried out by Russian aircraft in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, local civil defense officials said Wednesday.

"During the airstrike attacks of the war planes in Ma'arrat Hurma village seven civilians were killed and 10 civilians injured, mostly women and children. In the Hass village the children and Nisa hospital was attacked," Mustafa Hajj Youssef, director of the White Helmets civil-defence agency said.

Youssef said that after search and rescue operations ended, the airstrikes started again.

There are concerns that the number of deaths could rise as the condition of some wounded civilians were critical, Youssef added.

Additionally an air observatory officer, Hilal Muhammad said that the war planes took off from Russia's Khmeimim Airbase in western Syria and conducted their first attack in southern Idlib's Urum al-Joz village after attacking Ma'arrat Hurma village.

Notably, Idlib falls within a network of de-escalation zones, endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

Controlled largely by anti-regime groups, Idlib has remained the target of intense airstrikes for the last two months. In January alone, 211 civilians were killed in the province while another 1,447 were injured.

During the airstrike attacks in Idlib's de-escalation zone at least six hospitals and health centres were also targeted.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Source: AA </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> The Russian Defense Ministry has denied reports of deaths of 150 civilians in Syria's Idlib as result of Russian airstrikes.Russia denies reports suggesting that 150 civilians died in Syria's Idlib as a result of Russian airstrikes, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Thursday.Konashenkov said that Russian planes did not carry out airstrikes in Syria's residential neighbourhoods , adding that they were focused on hardware, reserves and al-Nusra Front militants.According to Konashenkov, Russian Aerospace Forces' airstrikes in Syria's Idlib derailed an operation of al-Nusra Front, which was trying to rescue militants from encirclement in Hama.On Wednesday, Reuters reported citing opposition rescue workers that Russian and Syrian planes killed at least 150 civilians and injured dozens in in an over a week-long campaign in Idlib. </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> BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):

The Russian Defense Ministry says a Su-33 fighter jet, based on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning from a sortie over Syria.

The ministry says in a statement that was reported by Russian news agencies that "because of the failure of the arrester system's cable, the Su-33 fighter rolled off the deck" on Monday.

The pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected and was unharmed in the incident. The ministry added that Russian military operations over Syria will not be affected by the incident.

This is the second loss of an aircraft from Russia's only aircraft carrier since it arrived off Syria last month. The Defense Ministry said that a Mig-29 fighter crashed into the sea on Nov. 15 while attempting to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov.

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> BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments related to Syria (all times local):

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is condemning the bombing of rebel-held eastern Ghouta and also calling the situation in the northern Syrian district of Afrin unacceptable.

Merkel said in a speech to the German parliament Wednesday that it's important to address the reasons why people flee their countries and pointed to the situation in Syria.

She said that "for all of Turkey's justified security interests, what is going on in Afrin is unacceptable, with thousands of civilians being persecuted, dying or having to flee."

The U.N. children's agency said Tuesday some 100,000 people were trapped in rural areas of Afrin and in need of humanitarian aid after Turkish and allied Syrian forces drove out a Syrian Kurdish militia there

Syrian rescuers and a war monitor say an airstrike in the rebel-held province of Idlib in northwestern Syria has killed at least 13 people, most of them children.

The Syrian Civil Defense in Idlib says the airstrike hit children running from their school in Kfar Bateekh village because of the jets flying overhead, killing 11 of them. The rescuers said Russian jets were behind the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike killed at least eight children, adding that the number of those killed is likely to rise as rescuers are still looking for survivors under the rubble. The Observatory said it was not immediately clear who was behind the strikes.

Idlib is the largest area still controlled by insurgents in Syria.

Syria state media say the death toll from a rebel mortar assault on a market in Damascus has risen to 38, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the capital since the start of the seven-year civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday put the death toll from the attack in Kashkol neighborhood even higher, at 43, including 11 pro-government fighters.

The government blamed the attack on rebels in the eastern suburbs, where Syrian troops backed by Russian warplanes have been waging a major offensive over the past month.

Videos of the aftermath of the attack posted online showed scenes of chaos, with people screaming and bodies and mannequins strewn across the ground.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> A Russian airstrike accidentally killed three and wounded 11 Turkish soldiers on Thursday, Anadolu agency reports.

President Putin called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his condolences for what the Kremlin later said was a “tragic” incident. The Russian Chief of General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, followed with a phone call to Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar.

The Russian jet fighter was operating against IS in the mostly IS-controlled Al-Bab region of northern Syria, where Turkish troops are advancing with the support of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Russia is playing a coordinating role, liaising between Turkey and the Assad regime. </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 (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.
Russian aircraft carry out airstrikes in Ma'arrat Hurma village in Idlib, Syria, killing seven civilians and injuring 10 others.