4 civilians killed by Russian airstrikes in Syria

By Esref Musa, Burak Karacaoglu and Levent Tok

IDLIB, Syria (AA) - At least four civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes Thursday in a de-escalation zone in northern Syria, according to sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency.

Three people were killed in the Khan Sheikhoun district of Idlib, and one in Latmeen village in Hama’s countryside, sources said.

Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

The de-escalation zone is currently inhabited by about 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the regime forces from cities and towns throughout the war-weary country in recent years.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

*Writing by Burak Bir