Regime raids kill 7 in Idlib, Syria

By Khaled Suleiman

IDLIB, Syria (AA) - At least seven civilians were killed and 16 injured in regime airstrikes in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on Sunday, according to local civil defense officials.

Regime warplanes struck a workshop in central Idlib, killing four people and injuring four others, the officials said, requesting anonymity due to security concerns.

Raids also targeted two schools in the Maaret al-Nuaman region and the opposition-held village of Maaret Masrin, killing three people and injuring 12 students, the source said.

Meanwhile, six civilians were injured when Syrian regime forces shelled a number of opposition-held villages near the Turkish border, local sources said.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said a joint Russian-Syrian regime attack on a school complex in Idlib last month, in which dozens of people were killed, could constitute a war crime.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced.