152,000 people fled Idlib, Syria
The war in Idlib, located in northwestern Syria, has flared up again. Warplanes have resumed bombing the areas. More than 152,000 people have fled the conflict-torn Idlib region in a week.
David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, said that more than 152,000 people have fled Idlib and Aleppo provinces in the past week. Swanson also warned of the bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure in Idlib by Syrian warplanes.
A spokesman for the UN Humanitarian and Relief Organization said that hundreds of civilians were killed and injured in these attacks, and schools and hospitals were also heavily bombed.
Idlib ceasefire violation
The latest reports indicate that airstrikes by Russian warplanes and Syrian government forces have expanded and are continuing in the Idlib region. Russia is one of Bashar al-Assad's backers.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Russian warplane attacks were the worst in recent months, and Bashar al-Assad's forces have invaded these areas by ground for the first time.
Türkiye: Iranian forces also attacked
Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported that despite the Sochi agreement between Türkiye and Russia in September 2018, the Assad regime and its supporters have continued their attacks on the de-escalation zone in Idlib.
Anadolu writes that more than 330 schools in the Idlib region have been closed and that "forces affiliated with the Bashar al-Assad regime and Iranian-backed terrorist groups" have taken over the village of Al-Janabara and the Osman Heights, which were considered demilitarized zones after the agreement between Turkey and Russia, in violation of the agreement related to the Idlib de-escalation zone.
According to Anadolu, the ground attack on the de-escalation zone in Idlib was also carried out by "Assad regime forces and Iranian-backed terrorist groups."
The news agency writes that Russia, as a country supporting the Assad regime, is obligated to prevent attacks by the regime.
Idlib is the last major opposition stronghold in Syria. The province is home to three million people, including 1.4 million Syrian refugees. The number of children in Idlib is estimated at around one million.
The Syrian war has been going on for eight years. The Idlib region is the last remnants of the Syrian rebels. About three million civilians live there, half of them refugees from other regions. The area is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a militia close to al-Qaeda. Syria and Russia argue that they are fighting extremists.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the parties to the conflict to respect the ceasefire agreement reached in September 2018.
Source: DW
