Russian airstrikes kill 4 Syrian civilians in rebel-held Idlib

Russia has carried out airstrikes in northwestern Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone, killing at least four civilians, a Syrian civil defense group announced Saturday.

The Syrian opposition aircraft observatory said the Russian jets targeted rural areas near the western Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

The White Helmets civil defense group said four civilians were killed in the attacks.

Civil defense workers, who wanted to reach the site of the attack, were also targeted by Russian forces, injuring one of them.

The Bashar al-Assad regime and its allies have 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.

But more than 1,800 civilians have been killed in attacks by regime and Russian forces since, flouting a 2018 cease-fire and a new one that began 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 the civil war in Syria in 2011.