UPDATE - Airstrikes kill 7 civilians in Syria's Idlib, Hama

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES HEADLINE

By Selen Temizer, Burak Karacaoglu and Levent Tok

ANKARA (AA) - At least seven civilians were killed on Tuesday when warplanes struck residential parts of Syria’s Idlib and Hama provinces.

In the northwestern Idlib province, the strikes targeted the towns of Kafr Nabl and Khan Shaykhoun and the villages of Habeet and Ter Mella.

And in the west-central Hama province, warplanes struck the town of Maarat al-Numan and the villages of Latamne, Kafr Zeta and Al-Sayyad.

According to Anadolu Agency correspondents on the ground, the airstrikes appeared to intensify on Tuesday afternoon.

It remains unclear, however, which states or groups were responsible for the deadly bombardments.

According to Syria’s “White Helmet” civil-defense forces in Idlib, three hospitals were struck by more than 40 separate airstrikes.

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, according to UN figures.

Earlier this week, Turkish and Russian diplomatic sources said that negotiators at Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan had agreed on the boundaries of a final de-escalation zone to be established in Idlib.