Russia and the Assad regime carried out scores of airstrikes in Syria’s Idlib and Hama provinces on Monday, killing at least seven civilians, according to local civil-defense sources.
Mostafa Haj Youssef, director of Syria’s White Helmets civil-defense force, told Anadolu Agency that both Syrian and Russian aircraft had conducted “more than 70” airstrikes in southern Idlib and in northern Hama.
"At least seven civilians, including two children and two women, were killed in the airstrikes, which were carried out early Monday morning," Youssef said.
Notably, Idlib falls within a network of de-escalation zones -- endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran -- in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
