UN: 13 children killed in Idlib, Syria since Thursday

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA (AA) - At least 13 children have been killed over the last week in Syria's opposition-held Idlib province, where an escalation in airstrikes has left 2.5 million civilians in a dire situation, a UN official said on Monday.

A Thursday attack on the village of Zardana killed nine children, while four children were killed in heavy violence over the weekend in the besieged villages of Foua and Kafraya, Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF’s regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

Nearly six million children have been uprooted from their homes in Syria since 2011, Cappelaere said.

The UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, Panos Moumtzis, said that out of a 2.5 million population, 1.2 million people in Idlib have been displaced.

"The first four months of the year have seen more than 900,000 people flee their homes inside Syria," Moumtzis said.

Idlib, which remains under opposition control, in May 2017 was designated a "de-escalation zone" in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Nevertheless, the Bashar al-Assad regime and Russian forces have continued to carry out attacks on the region.