A Syrian boy cries as he stands next to a building hit by an air strike on the village of Maaret al-Numan, in the country's northern province of Idlib, on December 4, 2016 (AFP Photo/Mohamed al-Bakour)

Aleppo (Syria) (AFP) - Suspected Russian air strikes killed at least 46 people in opposition-held parts of Syria Sunday, a monitor said, as government forces advanced in fierce clashes with rebels in east Aleppo.

Syria's government is waging an offensive to recapture all of second city Aleppo, and it has so far captured more than 60 percent of eastern districts that fell to rebels in 2012.

In Idlib province, in northwest Syria, at least 26 civilians were killed in suspected Russian strikes on the town of Kafr Nabel, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

An eyewitness told AFP warplanes hit several places in the town, including a market.

The Observatory says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

The group said 18 people were also killed in suspected Russian strikes on the town of Maaret al-Numan, where an AFP photographer saw rescue workers and residents trying to pull survivors from rubble at a market.

The monitor reported two additional deaths, one in an earlier strike on Maaret al-Numan and another in Al-Naqir, also in Idlib.

It said six civilians, four of them children, had been killed in a government barrel bomb attack on the town of Al-Tamanah in the same province.

Russia, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad's government, began a military intervention in support of Damascus in September 2015.

Moscow says it is targeting "terrorists" and has dismissed reports of civilian casualties in its strikes.

In east Aleppo, government forces advanced against rebels, taking three neighbourhoods and pushing into a fourth, state media and the Russian defence ministry said.

The army and allied forces are nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of the city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the offensive, which has made steady gains and threatens to deal Syria's opposition its worst defeat in the five-year civil war.

State television said late Sunday the army had captured the districts of Karm al-Tahan and Myessar and advanced into the Qadi Askar neighbourhood.

The Russian defence ministry said regime forces had also taken the district of Karm al-Katurji.

Rebels are increasingly under pressure in the remaining southeastern districts they control.

State news agency SANA said the air force was dropping leaflets over rebel-held areas urging "militants to abandon their weapons and... allow civilians and the sick and wounded to leave".

Damascus says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving the east and trying to use them as human shields.

But tens of thousands of residents have fled the east as the army has advanced, with some heading south to remaining rebel territory and others going to areas under government or Kurdish control.

The east has been pounded with air strikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire.

At least 311 civilians, including 42 children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the government assault began, the Observatory says.

Rebel fire on west Aleppo in the same period has killed 69 civilians, including 28 children, it says.

On Sunday, the bombardment of rebel districts was so fierce it shook buildings in the west as well as in the east, AFP correspondents on both sides said.

The Observatory said a woman and two children were killed in the eastern neighbourhood of Fardos in government artillery fire.

The latest assault has added to the massive destruction in east Aleppo, which has seen some of the worst violence in the conflict that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

The army has encouraged residents to return to recently recaptured neighbourhoods, but many who have ventured across to see their old homes have found nothing but rubble.

"This is all we found, this photo of my niece. It is precious to us, and we found a copy of the Koran, so we brought that too," said Um Yayha, 55.

The Russian defence ministry also said Syrian government forces took control of the town of Al-Tal outside Damascus after a local truce.

"More than 500 rebels from the Fateh al-Sham Front have left Al-Tal for Idlib over the last days with 1,500 family members," it said, referring to Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

Despite international outcry over the conflict, successive attempts to end it have failed.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Saturday urged a return to negotiations, warning of a "creeping, ongoing guerilla (war) and no reconstruction" unless peace talks resumed. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian jets resumed heavy bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday after several days of relative calm, a rebel official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Air strikes mostly hit the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, Zakaria Malhifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group told Reuters.

“There is renewed bombardment and it is heavy,” he said.

The Observatory said the death toll from bombing in Bustan al-Qasr, Fardous and other neighborhoods rose to at least 25, with scores of wounded.

At least 50 civilians were killed by strikes on the rebel-held part of the city and nearby villages controlled by insurgents, residents and rescue workers said. In Bustan al Qasr, residents said, the strikes hit a medical center and a children’s playground.

The Syrian army, backed by Iranian-backed militias, also said it had consolidated its control of the al Jandoul traffic circle at a major road intersection on the northern outskirts of Aleppo.

Moscow and Damascus reduced air raids in the northern city last week. The Syrian army said that was partly to allow civilians to leave opposition-held eastern neighborhoods.

The Syrian government said rebels holed up in Aleppo can leave with their families if they lay down their arms. Insurgents denounced that offer as a deception.

President Bashar al-Assad seeks the complete recapture of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the 5 1/2-year war, which has been divided between government and opposition control for years.

Assad’s Russian allies have meanwhile built up its forces in Syria after a brief ceasefire collapsed last month.

Civil defence members and men inspect a site damaged after an airstrike in the besieged rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Since Russia intervened in the war a year ago, the government’s side has gained the upper hand on numerous fronts, including Aleppo, where the opposition-held sector has been completely encircled for weeks.

Insurgents have advanced elsewhere, including in Hama province further south, where they captured a series of towns and villages last month. But in recent days government forces have regained some of that ground.

In the southern city of Deraa, which is split between government and rebel control, insurgent shelling of a school killed at least five people, including children, on Tuesday, the Observatory and state media reported.

Rebels denied they fired at the school. Residents reported the same death toll.

Near the Turkish border, rebels backed by Turkey and a U.S.-led coalition closed in on the Islamic State-held village of Dabiq, the site of an apocalyptic prophesy central to the militant group’s ideology.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel groups have been pushing south into Islamic State’s territory in an operation backed by Turkey since Aug. 24, and have taken more villages near Dabiq in recent days.

Slideshow (3 Images)

But hundreds of mines planted by the militants were delaying their progress, rebels said. The militants even retook the villages of Ihtimlat and Kafra only hours after the FSA fighters seized them, rebels said.

“They planted along their front lines of defense hundreds of mines,” a rebel from the Failaq al Sham group said. Now the goal of FSA forces was to retake the town of Soran, an Islamic State stronghold in the area, before moving on to Dabiq, he said. </s> Russian jets resumed heavy bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday after several days of relative calm, a rebel official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

At least 14 people were killed after air strikes in eastern Aleppo, while six other people including children died when a school was shelled by insurgents in southern Syria.

Shelling was also reported in the capital, Damascus, with mortar shells fired by opposition groups landing in the residential Qasaa district and close to the Umayyad Mosque, wounding an unspecified number of people.

In Aleppo, air strikes mostly hit the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, Zakaria Malhifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group told Reuters. “There is renewed bombardment and it is heavy,” he said.

The observatory said at least eight people were killed in Bustan al-Qasr and Fardous neighbourhoods.

Moscow and Damascus reduced air raids in the northern city last week. The Syrian army said it was partly to allow civilians to leave opposition-held eastern neighbourhoods.

The Syrian government said rebels holed up in Aleppo can leave with their families if they lay down their arms. Insurgents denounced that offer as a deception.

President Bashar al-Assad seeks the complete recapture of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the 5½-year war, and which has been divided between government and opposition control for years. Mr Assad’s ally Russia has meanwhile built up its forces in Syria since a brief ceasefire collapsed last month.

Russia’s intervention a year ago has helped the government side gain the upper hand against rebels on many frontlines in the Syrian conflict, including Aleppo where the opposition-held sector has been completely encircled for weeks.

Insurgents had advanced elsewhere against government forces and their allies, including in Hama province further south where they captured a series of towns and villages last month. Government forces have regained some of those areas in recent days, however.

In the southern city of Deraa, which is split between government and rebel control, insurgent shelling of a school killed at least six people including children, the observatory and state media reported.

A separate mortar attack hit a government complex in the heart of the city with reports of casualties, a Deraa resident said, adding that mosques were appealing for blood donations.

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Hizbullah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said the Middle East was in a phase of escalating tension and there appeared to be no prospect of a political solution to the war in Syria.

Nasrallah, whose Iranian-backed group is fighting alongside Mr Assad, criticised Saudi Arabia over its military campaign in Yemen, saying the Saudi leadership was pushing their country to “the abyss”.

Nasrallah was making a rare live televised speech before thousands of supporters in Beirut, to mark Shia Islam’s annual Ashura commemorations. Speaking about Syria, Mr Nasrallah said “the theatre was open to more tension, escalation and confrontation”. – (Reuters/PA) </s> The air raids formed part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and allies including Russia, which fired coordinated volleys of missiles at rebels on Tuesday and for the first time used its only aircraft carrier.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the air strikes on eastern Aleppo on Wednesday alone killed at least 21 people, including five children and an emergency worker. They were carried out by either Russian or Syrian warplanes, it said.

The Observatory said districts struck included al-Shaar, al-Sukkari, al-Sakhour and Karam al-Beik.

Air raids also continued in the countryside west of Aleppo from which rebels have launched assaults on government-held areas. An attack on the village of Batbo killed at least 19 people including three children, the Observatory said.

Moscow has denied reports that its jets have hit Aleppo in the renewed wave of bombardment, and said it was sticking to a moratorium on air strikes in the city.

Tuesday's bombing run on eastern Aleppo appeared to mark the end of a pause inside the city declared by Russia on Oct. 18 which Syria's military had also largely observed.

The Observatory and residents said the city's east was hit by rocket fired from jets, barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and artillery from government forces.

"The helicopters won't stop for a single moment," Bebars Mishal, a civil defense worker in rebel-held Aleppo, told Reuters. "Right now, the bombing won't let up."

The Civil Defence is a volunteer rescue service that operates in rebel-controlled areas of Syria, including Aleppo, the country's largest city and commercial hub before the war.

Wednesday's bombing struck next to a children's hospital and blood bank in the Shaar district, and near a school in the Salah al-Din district, residents and the Observatory said.

Two ambulances were also destroyed, said an advocacy officer at the Syrian American Medical Society aid group, citing reports from colleagues in Aleppo.

"We woke up to the bombing and until now, the warplanes and helicopters are running," said Modar Shekho, a nurse in eastern Aleppo. "The Shaar neighborhood was burned down between yesterday and today."

A video posted by Shekho on a social networking site, which he said was taken on Wednesday, showed a building with large holes and burn marks next to a large heap of rubble and twisted metal which he said was all that remained of another structure.

Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, a Civil Defence official, said there were more than 40 air strikes on the Shaar area. "Today the bombardment is very, very fierce," he said.

On Monday and early Tuesday, there were air strikes on hospitals in three rebel-held towns to the west of Aleppo, knocking them all out of service. Damascus and Moscow both deny targeting hospitals.

The World Health Organization said there had been heavy attacks on five hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib provinces since Sunday, severely reducing access to health services for people in northern Syria.

Syrian state television said on Tuesday the Damascus government's air force took part in strikes against what it called terrorist strongholds in Aleppo's Old City.

Russia said it had struck Islamic State and former Nusra Front militant sites elsewhere in Syria, without mentioning Aleppo.

On Tuesday evening, state-owned Ikhabariyah television reported large troop deployments along several main fronts in the Aleppo theater in preparation for a major ground offensive that it said was imminent and awaiting "zero hour" to begin.

Aleppo has become the pivotal front in Syria's 5-1/2-year war pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite Muslim militias, against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

Aleppo has for years been divided between the government-held western sector and rebel-held east, which the Syrian army and its allies besieged during the summer. Its allied forces include Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias. </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> ALEPPO, Syria — Rebel shelling killed two Russian nurses and eight civilians Monday in Aleppo, and a Russian fighter jet crashed as it was returning to an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean after a sortie over Syria, but the pilot ejected safely, Moscow officials said.

The shelling that targeted government-controlled western Aleppo was one of the most intense in recent days. It coincided with a crushing air and ground assault that has seen forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad recapture more than half of opposition-held eastern Aleppo.

Russia and militias allied with Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been staunch supporters of Assad in his country's bitter civil war, now in its sixth year.

The shelling initially killed one female nurse and wounded two Russian medics working in a field hospital, a Russian officer told reporters in the northern city. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Moscow had sent hospital equipment to the government-controlled Furqan neighborhood on Sunday.

Another nurse who was wounded in the shelling later died, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"The Russian and Syrian doctors tried their best to save her," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in an emailed statement. Another Russian, a pediatrician, remains in critical condition.

He urged international organizations such as the Red Cross to condemn the attack on the health workers "who were doing their medical duty to help the civilians of Aleppo."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said talks would be held with the United States this week in Geneva on a rebel withdrawal from eastern Aleppo, Russian news agencies reported. The Russians have tried before to coax rebels into leaving the territory, setting up corridors out of the district, but the fighters have refused because they want to retain their control over parts of the city. Some fear the Russians and their Syrian allies would not ensure their safety.

Monday's fighting was the worst in days. Syrian government artillery, tanks and warplanes pounded rebel-held parts of the city for hours. The airstrikes were so intense that buildings on the western side of the city shook. Opposition activists and rescue workers said four people were killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel-held district, and three more were trapped in the rubble.

Insurgents also struck back in the government-held western parts of the city with dozens of mortar shells. At least eight civilians were killed in different neighborhoods, according to state news agency SANA. Among the dead were two children and four women, said the opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Thick smoke billowed from behind Aleppo's famous citadel where Syrian forces were advancing from the west and east to try to cut rebel-held districts in half.

On the city's southern edge, heavy machine gun fire could be heard.

An Associated Press team in government-controlled Aleppo said the attack on the Russian field hospital left the large tent charred and beds overturned. The shelling struck shortly before the inauguration of makeshift clinic. The AP crew was accompanied by representatives of the Syrian army.

Konashenkov said an unspecified number of residents at the field hospital were wounded, and he accused the U.S., Britain and France of telling the rebels the location of the hospital.

"The blood of our soldiers is on the hands of those who ordered this murder — those who created, nurtured and armed these beasts in human form and named them the 'opposition,'" he said.

Asked about the accusation, the British Defense Ministry declined to comment.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said the Su-33 fighter jet crashed in the Mediterranean as it returned to the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov after a sortie over Syria. "Because of the failure of the arrester system's cable, the Su-33 fighter rolled off the deck," the ministry said.

The pilot ejected successfully and was unharmed, the ministry said, adding that Russian military operations over Syria would not be affected by the incident.

This is the second loss of an aircraft from the Admiral Kuznetsov since it arrived off Syria last month. A MiG-29 crashed into the sea Nov. 15 while trying to land on the carrier.

In a ground offensive that began last week, Syrian government forces seized large parts of the Aleppo enclave that have been under rebel control since 2012. Monday's fighting was most intense near the dividing line between eastern and western Aleppo as government and allied troops pushed their way from the eastern flank, reaching less than 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the citadel in the center of the city.

Rebel fighters clashed with advancing troops and also lobbed mortars and shells into the government-controlled part of Aleppo to the west.

The opposition-run Thiqa News agency and the Syrian Civil Defense said four civilians were killed in the rebel-held Zabadiyeh district when barrel bombs were dropped there.

In nearby rebel-controlled Idlib province, Syrian opposition activists said Russian and Syrian aircraft stepped up assaults, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people.

The activist-run Local Coordination Committees said airstrikes on Monday hit the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib. The network said three children were killed, blaming the attacks on Russian aircraft.

Rebels also sent rockets into the predominantly Shiite towns of Foua and Kfarya, in Idlib province. Online video posted by activists showed clouds of smoke rising and wreckage sustained by the blasts.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes. The Syrian Civil Defense in Idlib said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday's 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> AMMAN: Russian and Syrian jets killed at least 150 civilians and injured dozens in over a week of heavy bombing that shattered a six-month halt in intensive aerial raids in opposition-held northwestern parts of Syria, opposition rescue workers said on Wednesday.

The renewed bombing campaign came after an array of jihadist rebels led by the former Qaeda offshoot in Syria last week waged a wide-scale offensive against government-controlled areas in northern Hama.

"We have pulled 152 bodies and we have rescued 279 civilians since the Russian and regime bombing campaign," said Salem Abu al Azem, a senior rescue worker from the opposition-run Civil Defence in Idlib, adding bodies were still being pulled out of the wreckage of buildings flattened by air raids.

Russia's defence ministry says it is attacking hard-line Islamist militants. It denies accusations it has targeted infrastructure and medical centres to force rebels into local truces that effectively restore President Bashar al Assad's grip on the country.

Civil defence officials and other humanitarian aid workers have documented the destruction of six hospitals, five defence centres, and power stations in the first few days of the bombing campaign alongside hitting camps where displaced civilians have been sheltering.

Rebels and witnesses differentiate easily Russian jets from Syrian planes with the former flying in sorties at high altitudes making drops with devastating impact.

The strikes began with intensive bombing of towns and cities in southern Idlib where the jihadists have a large presence but in recent days have spread to most towns across the province that borders Turkey.

Thousands of families have fled from towns such as Jisr al Shqour and Jabal al Zawya to rural areas less exposed to daily bombing and shelling, aid workers said.

The bombing campaign however comes shortly after a tripartite deal struck by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to deploy an observer force in Idlib, a province where the former al Qaeda Syrian offshoot has cemented its control after it crushed opponents.

The Kremlin said earlier this week Russia’s president Vladimir Putin was expected to meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on a visit to Ankara on Thursday.

Syrian rebel officials says Turkey wants to get the approval of Moscow, the power with the dominant role in Syria, to press ahead with its widely anticipated plan to deploy troops in Idlib. </s> Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

At least 544 civilians have been killed and over 2,000 people injured since a Russian-led assault on the last rebel bastion in northwestern Syria began two months ago, rights groups and rescuers said on Saturday.



Russian jets joined the Syrian army on April 26 in the biggest offensive against parts of rebel-held Idlib province and adjoining northern Hama provinces in the biggest escalation in the war between Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his enemies since last summer.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights,(SNHR), which monitors casualties and briefs various UN agencies, said the 544 civilians killed in the hundreds of attacks carried out by Russian jets and the Syrian army include 130 children. Another 2,117 people have been injured."The Russian military and its Syrian ally are deliberately targeting civilians with a record number of medical facilities bombed," Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of SNHR, told Reuters.Russia and its Syrian army ally deny their jets hit indiscriminately civilian areas with cluster munitions and incendiary weapons, which residents in opposition areas say are meant to paralyze every-day life.Moscow says its forces and the Syrian army are fending off terror attacks by al Qaeda militants whom they say hit populated, government-held areas, and it accuses rebels of wrecking a ceasefire deal agreed last year between Turkey and Russia.Last month U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said the Russian-Syrian joint military operation had used cluster munitions and incendiary weapons in the attacks along with large air-dropped explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated civilian areas, based on reports by first responders and witnesses.Residents and rescuers say the two-month-old campaign has left dozens of villages and towns in ruins. According to the United Nations, at least 300,000 people have been forced to leave their homes for the safety of areas closer to the border with Turkey."Whole villages and towns have been emptied," said Idlib-based Civil Defence spokesman Ahmad al Sheikho, saying it was the most destructive campaign against Idlib province since it completely fell to the opposition in the middle of 2015.On Friday, 15 people, including children, were killed in the village of Mhambil in western Idlib province after Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on a civilian quarter, the civil defense group and witnesses said.The heads of 11 major global humanitarian organizations warned at the end of last month that Idlib stood at the brink of disaster, with 3 million civilian lives at risk, including 1 million children."Too many have died already” and “even wars have laws” they declared, in the face of multiple attacks by government forces and their allies on hospitals, schools and markets," the U.N.-endorsed statement said.Last Thursday an aerial strike on Kafr Nabl hospital made it the 30th facility to be bombed during the campaign, leaving hundreds of thousands with no medical access, according to aid groups."To have these medical facilities bombed and put out of service in less than two months is no accident. Let's call this by what it is, a war crime," Dr. Khaula Sawah, vice president of the U.S.-based Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which provides aid in the northwest, said in a statement.

Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel official report that Russian jets have resumed heavy bombing, and, in total, have now killed at least 50 civilians in villages surrounding rebel-held eastern Aleppo.