Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed late Thursday Assad regime's attacks against Syria's Idlib with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
In phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Erdoğan stressed need for immediate cease-fire, political solution in Syria's Idlib province.
"More casualties in Syrian regime attacks near Idlib mostly targeting civilians, risk of rising migration should be eliminated," Erdoğan also said during telephone conversation.
Regime attacks targeting residential areas in Syria's de-escalation zone continue causing civilian casualties and destroying public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and markets. At least 13 civilians were killed in attacks by regime forces and allied militias on de-escalation zones in northern Syria on Wednesday, according to sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency.
Aerial bombardment did not relent, starting around the time for sahur — the last meal Muslims have before their dawn-to-dusk fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The sources said three people were killed in regime shelling of the village of Al-Bara in northwestern Syria.
Three more civilians were killed in attacks in the town of Habit and seven others in the village of Sarja in the southern countryside of Idlib, sources added. A large number of civilians were reportedly injured in the attacks. According to the Syrian opposition, the attacks on Habit were carried out by a Russian warplane that took off from the Khmeimim airbase in Latakia.
Airstrikes, some using deadly barrel bombs, and shelling by both the regime of Bashar Assad and Russian warplanes have claimed a mounting civilian death toll over the past few weeks in Idlib province. On Tuesday, at least 24 civilians died in similar circumstances, in the single highest civilian death toll in the region since Damascus increased attacks in late April, the White Helmets reported on Tuesday, one day after it reported that 17 civilians were killed in separate attacks.
