Regime attacks kill 12 in Syria's de-escalation zones

By Esref Musa and Burak Karacaoglu

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – Twelve civilians were killed in attacks by regime forces in Syria’s northwestern de-escalation zones, sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency said on Monday.

Four children were among the victims in the attacks that targeted the town of Kafr Nabl in Idlib province and Qastun in Hama last night, the sources said.

The new deaths brought to more than 415 civilians, who have lost their lives in Idlib since April 25.

Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, half are displaced from other parts of the war-torn 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 cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat