By Esref Musa and Burak Karacaoglu
IDLIB, Syria (AA) - Three civilians were killed and eight others injured Friday in attacks by the Assad regime in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, local sources said.
The White Helmets civil-defense agency said an airstrike killed two civilians in Maarat al-Numan, while a third civilian was killed in the nearby Kafarruma.
At least 148 civilians have lost their lives in Idlib since April 25, with more than 395 civilians injured.
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 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 Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.
* Writing by Vakkas Dogantekin