Russia and the Bashar al-Assad regime carried out airstrikes and ground attacks Monday in northern Syria, killing at least four civilians.
Russian warplanes targeted residential neighborhoods in the town of Darat Izza in Aleppo governorate, killing three civilians, said war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding two hospitals were also targeted.
Regime forces carried out airstrikes and artillery fire on the town of al-Dana east of the Turkish border, killing one civilian.
The Assad regime and its allies have meanwhile continued intensified air and land attacks on civilian settlements in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
Since then, however, more than 1,800 civilians have been killed in attacks by regime and Russian forces who flouted a 2018 ceasefire and a new one that began on Jan. 12.
More than 1.7 million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks over the past year.
Turkey remains the country with most refugees in the world, hosting more than 3.7 million migrants since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.
*Writing by Dilara Hamit in Ankara
