At least nine civilians were killed and 14 others injured in fresh regime airstrikes in the de-escalation zones in northwestern Syria on Tuesday.

The attacks targeted residential areas in the towns of Jisr al-Shughur, Khan Shaykhun, Maar Shoreen, Hantoteen and Ain Al Bardeh in Idlib province, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground.

Turkey and Russia inked a deal in Sochi for a buffer zone in September to prevent a massive regime offensive on the Idlib region near the Turkish border.

Following eight months of calm provided by the Sochi deal, the Assad regime intensified its attacks starting April 26 under the pretext of fighting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants holed up in Idlib.

The offensive has displaced over 300,000 within the opposition-held area and killed hundreds, including medical staff. Residential areas have been destroyed by indiscriminate attacks, while numerous educational facilities, health facilities and residential areas have collapsed or have become unusable after being targeted by bombs.

Aid agencies say the scale of bombardment in the northwest risks further humanitarian disaster, hundreds of thousands of people have already fled toward the Turkish border. </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> At least six civilians were killed by regime airstrikes in Syria’s northwestern de-escalation zones, according to sources within the White Helmets civil-defense agency.

The attacks occurred in the towns of Khan Sheykhun, Jisr al-Shughour and Saraqib in Syria’s Idlib province, the sources said. According to the same sources, regime forces and Iran-backed terrorist groups also shelled the towns of Maarat al-Numan and Maarat Herma, along with the villages of Al-Kassabiyya, Abdin, Karasaa, Kafr Sajna and Al-Naqeer.

Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, half of whom have been displaced from their homes in other parts of the country.

Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited. The Syrian regime, however, has consistently broken the terms of the truce, staging frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Rebel fighters posed for pictures with wreckage from the warplane

A Syrian government warplane has been shot down during fighting in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib.

It happened near the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which is being targeted in a Russian-backed government offensive.

Syrian state news agency Sana said that the warplane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile fired by militants.

Jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has claimed responsibility and released footage purportedly showing the captured pilot.

HTS, the dominant faction in Idlib, did not say how it brought down the Russian-made Sukhoi warplane on Wednesday.

In a video published by its media arm Iba on Thursday, a man identifies himself as "Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Ahmad Sulayman from the 70th Brigade".

"My plane was shot down by mujahideen while I was carrying out my mission east of Khan Sheikhoun. I am currently with mujahideen," he says, referring to the jihadist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, had earlier reported that the pilot had been captured by HTS militants.

Sana quoted a military source as saying that the pilot's fate was unknown.

The government has stepped up its offensive in the region in recent months. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more driven from their homes.

Syria's government, backed by Russia, is trying to recapture the region from rebels and jihadists.

Khan Sheikhoun, which was hit by a Sarin gas attack in 2017, is a strategically important town in the south of the province.

Government forces said they had seized new ground on Wednesday, advancing to within a few kilometres of Khan Sheikhoun, which has been controlled by rebels since 2014.

A rebel commander told Reuters news agency that the town was in "great danger".

Image copyright AFP Image caption The plane left a large crater after being shot down near Khan Sheikhoun

Idlib, northern Hama and western Aleppo province make up the last opposition stronghold in Syria after eight years of civil war.

They are supposedly covered by a truce brokered in September by Russia and opposition-backer Turkey that spared the 2.7 million civilians living there from a major government offensive.

Civilian areas have been hit frequently since the Syrian government and Russia intensified their attacks earlier this year in response to what they said were repeated truce violations by jihadists linked to al-Qaeda, who dominate the region. </s> FILE – This Saturday, July 27, 2019 file photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man carrying an injured girl after an airstrike hit the northern town of Ariha, in Idlib province, Syria. Syrian opposition activists and a war monitor said Sunday, July 28, 2019, that five people have been killed in airstrikes on Ariha on Sunday as the government keeps up its deadly air campaign against the rebel-controlled region. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government airstrikes on a town in the country’s northwest killed five people, two of whom were from the same family, opposition activists said Sunday.

The airstrikes on the town of Ariha came as the government continued its deadly air campaign against the last rebel-held region in Syria.

Another 21 people were wounded in the airstrikes. The causality figures were provided by both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, and the opposition-affiliated first responders known as the White Helmets.

The town has been particularly targeted over the past week, as the government looks to regain momentum in its stalled offensive against Idlib province, which began in late April.

A day earlier, activists had said an airstrike in Ariha killed 11 people when it hit a busy market there. It is one of the main towns in Idlib province, which along with the surrounding rural areas of Hama province, are home to 3 million people.

The rebel enclave is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants and other jihadi groups. The government says it is targeting terrorist locations.

Most of the civilians living in the rebel stronghold have already been displaced by other bouts of violence.

Over the last three years, the government regained control of most of the territories that were initially seized by the opposition in the early days of the civil conflict — now in its 9th year. </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> A Turkey Armed Forces convoy is seen at a highway between Maaret al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, Syria, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. The Turkish Defense Ministry says airstrikes have targeted a Turkish military convoy in Syria, killing at least three civilians and wounding 12 others in Monday's attack that occurred while the convoy was heading toward a Turkish observation post in the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib. (Murat Kibritoglu/DHA via AP)

A Turkey Armed Forces convoy is seen at a highway between Maaret al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, Syria, Monday, Aug. 19, 2019. The Turkish Defense Ministry says airstrikes have targeted a Turkish military convoy in Syria, killing at least three civilians and wounding 12 others in Monday's attack that occurred while the convoy was heading toward a Turkish observation post in the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib. (Murat Kibritoglu/DHA via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — The main insurgent group in the Syrian province of Idlib pulled out of a key rebel town as government forces advanced in the area on Tuesday amid intense bombardment and airstrikes, a militant group and opposition activists said.

As the militants withdrew, government troops moved into northern and western neighborhoods of Khan Sheikhoun, marking a significant gain for President Bashar Assad’s forces as they try to chip away at territory controlled by the opposition in Idlib. The northwestern province, dominated by an al-Qaida-linked faction, is the last major rebel-held bastion in Syria.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Syria’s main al-Qaida-linked faction, said in a statement that its fighters carried out “a re-deployment,” withdrawing to areas south of the town of Khan Sheikhoun. From there, they would continue to defend the territory, it said.

Syrian state TV said government troops have expanded their presence in the Khan Sheikhoun area, without giving further details.

“The victories that were achieved show the determination of the people and the army to strike terrorists, until all parts of Syria are liberated,” Assad said, according to comments released by his office.

The withdrawal is a blow to the opposition. Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in Idlib and northern parts of Hama province since April 30, forcing nearly half a million people to flee to safer areas further north. The fighting also killed more than 2,000 people, including hundreds of civilians.

After months of intense bombardment, the insurgents’ defenses appear to be crumbling as they are now losing ground at a much faster pace compared with the first three months of the government push.

In the long-running Syrian civil war, now in its ninth year, the northwestern region — where Turkish, Russian, U.S. and Iranian interests are at stake — has taken center stage in the conflict.

The latest government gains come as NATO allies Turkey and the U.S. are discussing setting up a buffer inside Syria — one that Ankara wants to push Syrian Kurdish fighters it considers terrorists further to the east.

There has been speculation, meanwhile, that Russia and Turkey, which back rival sides in Syria’s conflict, have reached an agreement that would allow the Syrian army to retake parts of Idlib and reopen a highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.

Khan Sheikhoun, which had been held by militants since 2014, sits on that highway.

After the capture of Khan Sheikhoun, Syrian troops are likely now to move north toward Maaret al-Numan, another town on the highway that has been subjected to intense airstrikes over the past days. Opposition activists also reported intense bombardment on the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughour on the southwestern edge of Idlib on Tuesday.

Backed by Russian air power, Syrian troops were able to enter parts of Khan Sheikhoun overnight, according to opposition activists, and are now clearing the area abandoned by militants of explosives and booby traps.

“After fierce bombardment by the criminal enemy that avoids direct confrontation with holy warriors by implementing a scorched earth policy, our fighters have redeployed south of Khan Sheihoun,” the statement said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other insurgent groups withdrew from Khan Sheikhoun as well as the towns and villages south of the town.

According to the Observatory, Khan Sheikhoun was home to about 1 million people, nearly 700,000 of them displaced by fighting in other parts of the country, before the government offensive began in April. In recent days hundreds of civilians remained in the town according to the group that tracks Syria’s war, now in its ninth year.

The Syrian Response Coordination Group, a relief group active in northwestern Syria, called on Tuesday for a “humanitarian truce” to allow civilians who are stuck in the areas of fighting to leave. The group said in a statement the Russia and Syrian governments “are practicing terrorism against civilians” in violation of international laws.

Khan Sheikhoun was a stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked militant faction, the most powerful group in rebel-held areas in Syria. The town was also the scene of a chemical attack on April 4, 2017 that killed 89 people.

At the time, the United States, Britain and France pointed a finger at the Syrian government, saying their experts had found that nerve agents were used in the attack. Days later, the U.S. fired 59 U.S. Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Air Base in central Syria, saying the attack on Khan Sheikhoun was launched from the base.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies denied there was a chemical attack.

Also Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned the Syrian government against “playing with fire,” a day after an airstrikes targeted a Turkish army convoy near Khan Sheikoun, killing 3 civilians.

Cavusoglu said the convoy was on its way to provide “security” to a Turkish observation post in Idlib. Syria said the convoy was carrying ammunition to rebels.

“We will do what is necessary for the security of our soldiers ... but we are working to avoid reaching that point,” he said. </s> This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, shows Civil Defense workers and Syrian citizens inspecting damaged buildings after airstrikes hit Maarat al-Nuaman town, in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, March 25, 2017. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes hit a women's prison and a clinic in rebel-held parts of Syria on Saturday, killing and wounding scores of people amid clashes on multiple fronts between government forces and insurgent groups in some of the country's worst violence in weeks, opposition activists said.

The airstrikes, of which some activists said included Russian air raids, concentrated on the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, the central province of Hama and suburbs of the capital Damascus that have come under attack by insurgent groups over the past week.

One of the airstrikes hit a main street in the Damascus suburb of Hamouriyeh killing at least 16 people and wounded more than 50, activists said. The airstrikes caused wide destruction in the area.

The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said in a statement released in Geneva that he is deeply concerned by the recent escalation of violence in Syria, highlighting that it undermines a Dec. 30 cease-fire brokered by Turkey, Iran and Russia who back opposing parties in the conflict.

The statement said de Mistura had communicated with the foreign ministers of the three countries, appealing to them to exert urgent efforts to uphold the cease-fire.

Speaking after meeting on Saturday with the U.N. envoy in Geneva as part of a fresh round of Syrian peace talks, Nasr al-Hariri, the head of the main opposition delegation, lashed out at Assad's "killing machine" and both named, and showed photos of some of the victims — including some featuring graphic imagery.

"This is the fault of warplanes," he told reporters. "These are the ones who claim to fight terrorism who are responsible for this horrible massacre in Hamouna."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes on Hamouriyeh killed 16, including eight women and children, and wounded more than 50. The Local Coordination said 18 were killed and dozens were wounded.

Both groups said some people are still missing, and that the death toll could rise.

"They have been hitting Hamouriyeh for days but today they struck an area packed with civilians," said Awis al-Shami of The Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, via text message.

The airstrikes come as insurgent groups have been on the offensive in Damascus and the central province of Hama for the past days. Government forces and their allies launched a counteroffensive capturing some of the areas they lost in Damascus and Hama.

Opposition activists also reported airstrikes in Idlib province hitting several towns and villages as well as the provincial capital the carries the same name.

The Observatory said a Friday night attack struck a prison run by militants, killing at least 16 people including prisoners and prison staff in Idlib city. It added that women were among the dead as well.

The monitoring group, which has a network of activists around the country, said some people were killed by gunfire as prison guards chased detainees who tried to flee after the attack.

The Syrian National Coalition, one of the largest opposition groups, said the airstrikes on Idlib targeted among other things a women's prison, saying that dozens of people were killed or wounded.

The Observatory and the Syrian Civil Defense group, also known as the White Helmets, said an airstrike struck a clinic in the village of Kfar Nubul in Idlib province. They had no immediate word on casualties.

The Local Coordination Committees said five air raids struck the city of Idlib without giving further details.

Idlib is a stronghold of Syrian insurgent groups and is regularly targeted by Syrian and Russian warplanes.

In the central province of Hama, Syrian government forces and their allies launched a counteroffensive, capturing some of the areas they lost in an attack by insurgents earlier this week.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said Saturday that government forces regained control of the village of Kawkab and repelled an attack on the town of Qamhana.

The Observatory reported intense clashes in the area adding that, under the pressure of shelling and airstrikes, insurgents had to withdraw from some recently gained areas.

On Wednesday, insurgents advanced to within a few kilometers of the government-held city of Hama in their new offensive spearheaded by an al-Qaida-linked group.

The fighting forced thousands of civilians to flee the area, according to international aid groups. </s> Airstrikes in rebel-held northwestern Syria kill at least 8

BEIRUT (AP) — Government forces intensified their bombardment of rebel-held towns and villages in northwest Syria, killing at least eight people Tuesday, including five in an airstrike on a market, opposition activists said.

The new wave of violence that began on April 30 is the worst since September, when Russia and Turkey brokered a cease-fire that averted a government offensive on Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold. The new wave of violence has resulted in hundreds of civilian dead and injured and over 150,000 newly displaced persons, according to the U.N.

Idlib province, that is home of 3 million people many of them displaced from other parts of Syria, is mostly controlled by al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

The latest wave of violence was triggered by attacks by HTS gunmen that killed dozens of troops.

Opposition-linked first responders, known as the White Helmets, said warplanes bombed a market in the village of Ras el-Ain on Tuesday morning, killing five people, including three children, and wounding 20. White Helmets also said that three other people were killed in the villages of Maar Tamater and Bara.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported airstrikes and shelling on Idlib and northern rebel-held parts of Hama province. It said 13 civilians were killed on Tuesday alone.

The Observatory said insurgents Tuesday attacked army positions in Latakia province on the edge of Idlib killing nine soldiers and pro-government gunmen. The Observatory said three insurgents were killed in the attack.

Syrian state news agency SANA said troops were pounding insurgents' positions "in retaliation for their violations of the truce."

An HTS military commander known as Abu Khaled al-Shami said in comments posted online that the looming battle "will be decisive and we will use all our capabilities that will surprise the enemy."

On Monday, Syrian troops captured the village of al-Bani and the nearby Othman hill in the northern countryside of Hama province.
Syrian government airstrikes targeting residential areas in the towns of Jisr al-Shughur, Khan Shaykhun, Maar Shoreen, Hantoteen and Ain Al Bardeh in Idlib province, kill at least nine civilians and injure 14 others.