DEIR SHARQI,
Syria: Regime air strikes yesterday killed a woman and six of her children in
northwest Syria, a war monitor said, a day after Russian bombardment pummelled
a nearby displacement camp. The air strike hit the family's one-story home in
the village of Dayr Sharqi in Idlib province, killing everyone inside, said the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A photographer collaborating
with AFP said he saw a man leaving the site of the blast, carrying the bloody
corpse of a young girl, her hair streaked with blood.

A rescue worker
carried the dust covered body of a second child, he added. The photographer
said he also saw the charred remains of a third victim trapped underneath the
rubble, as rescue workers tried to retrieve it. Heightened air raids by the
Syrian regime and its ally Moscow on the Idlib region - the last major
opposition bastion in Syria's northwest - have killed hundreds since the end of
April. The latest air strikes on the village of Dayr Sharqi wounded three other
people, the Observatory said.

The attack came a
day after Russian air raids killed 15 civilians, including six children in a
nearby displacement camp in the town of Hass, according to the war monitor. Two
other children were killed by Syrian regime air strikes in different parts of
southern Idlib on Friday, it said. A French foreign ministry statement released
after those attacks condemned "indiscriminate air strikes by the regime
and its allies in Idlib". It specifically mentioned the air strikes on the
displacement camp and called "for an immediate cessation of
hostilities".

Over the past
week, regime forces have advanced on the southern edges of Idlib province, with
the aim of capturing the town of Khan Sheikhoun, which lies on a key highway
coveted by the regime. The highway runs through Idlib, connecting
government-held Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, which was retaken by
regime forces from rebels in Dec 2016. Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has since January controlled most of Idlib province as
well as parts of neighboring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. Other rebel
groups are also present in the area.

A buffer zone
deal brokered by Russia and Turkey last year was supposed to protect the
region's three million inhabitants from an all-out regime offensive, but it was
never fully implemented. Regime and Russian air strikes and shelling since late
April have killed more than 850 civilians, according to the Observatory. The
United Nations says the violence has displaced more than 400,000 people.

AFP
correspondents have reported seeing dozens of families flee fighting over the
past few days, heading north in trucks stacked high with belongings. Syria's
conflict has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions at home and
abroad since starting with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in
2011. - AFP