Over 1,000 Syrians killed in Idlib since May 2017: NGO

By Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Syrian regime and allied Russian forces have killed at least 1,109 civilians in northern Syria’s Idlib province since May 2017, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, or SNHR.

The civilian deaths included at least 255 children and 209 women in at least 233 attacks.

The attacks also targeted 34 medical centers, 50 schools, and 16 marketplaces, SNHR said in a report Wednesday, adding at least 32 massacres have been committed.

Idlib is among a number of de-escalation zones Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed to establish during their talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana last September.

The report also documented 19 cluster munition attacks, 16 incendiary attacks and one chemical weapon attack by Bashar al-Assad regime forces with clear support from Russian forces.

The report said Syrian regime aircraft dropped 752 barrel bombs on Idlib.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN.