Syrian regime strikes kill 7 civilians in latest Idlib bloodshed

Assad regime air strikes on northwest Syria's Idlib killed seven civilians on Thursday, a monitor said, the latest deaths in a bloody wave of regime attacks.

Assad and its ally Russia have pummeled Idlib province and surroundings over the past month despite a truce deal aimed at staving off a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organization says over 285 civilians have been killed since late April in the enclave, home to almost three million people.

"The pace of air strikes decreased relatively on Thursday compared to previous days," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

But bombings still killed seven civilians, including five in the town of Maaret al-Numan on the western edge of the opposition-held territory, he said.

An AFP photographer reported the strikes hit a residential area, collapsing a building and killing some of those inside.

The body of a victim could be seen still in bed as rescue workers struggled to reach survivors trapped under the rubble.

The United Nations says roughly 270,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since late April and that aid agencies have been forced to halt work in some areas.

Some 30 health facilities and schools have been hit, the U.N. says.

Idlib is the Syrian opposition's last enclave and has been protected from a massive regime offensive by the deal reached between Ankara and Moscow in September 2018.

Its pre-war population of 1.5 million has swelled to around 3 million with new refugee waves after it was designated a "de-escalation zone" under the Astana agreement between Turkey, Russia and Iran in May 2017 to pave the way for a permanent political solution in Syria. Tens of thousands of Syrians trapped in other parts of the country were evacuated there under various cease-fire agreements.

The bombardments has killed 229 civilians, injured 727 and forced more than 300,000 people to flee since April 28, according to the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), which provides assistance to health facilities.

Regime forces have been using the pretext of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants holed up inside Idlib to carry out intermittent attacks on the city, intensifying their attacks since April 26.

While heavy airstrikes have worsened the humanitarian situation, Assad regime troops and opposition forces have been struggling for territorial gains in Idlib.

After the attacks escalated, the inhabitants of the city began to flock to territories liberated by Turkey with operations Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield, including cities near the Turkish border including Atme, Kah, Deir Hassan and Kefer Lusin and 12 observation points set up in the region by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in May 2018.