IDLIB: Three family members, all civilians, were killed on Saturday when Russian warplanes struck the outskirts of the northwest Syrian city of Idlib, a war monitor said.

       Russia has over the years repeatedly struck Syria’s last main opposition bastion, but attacks killing civilians had been limited this year until an uptick in violence in late June.

       “Russian air strikes this morning” to the west of Idlib left “three dead from the same family” including a woman and a child, and six others wounded, said the Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights.

       Four strikes hit the area where rebel bases are also present, added the Britain-based group which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria.

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       A correspondent saw a partially destroyed building with floor mats, mattresses and the remains of a vehicle among the rubble.

       With Russian and Iranian support, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has clawed back much of the territory it had lost to rebels early in the conflict that erupted in 2011.

       The last pockets of armed opposition to the Assad government include swathes of rebel-held Idlib province, controlled by jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which is led by the country’s former Al Qaeda affiliate.

       Abdul Kafi Kyal, a volunteer with the White Helmets rescue group at the site of the Saturday’s strike, condemned the Russian raid which he said caused not only casualties but also spread “terror and panic among civilians”.

       Syria’s 12-year-long war broke out after the repression of peaceful anti-government demonstrations escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.

       The war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions.

       Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2023