(Zaman Al Wasl)- The National Liberation Front, key rebel group in northwestern Syria, have pounded the Mujanzarat School in Hama province with rocket-propelled grenades in retaliation to the regime's heavy bombing on Idlib province, local activists said Sunday.
The regime forces have moved seven helicopters stationed in the school’s airport to Hama military airport.
Activists say that the Mujanzarat School has become the military operation room for Idlib's offensive.
Idlib, Syria's last major rebel bastion, was targeted on Saturday by the "most violent" Russian air strikes in a month. It was the heaviest bombardment since August 10, when at least 53 civilians were killed in Idlib and the neighbouring province of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Aid organisations have warned that any military campaign to retake the region of nearly three million people on the Turkish border could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria's seven-year war.
In the past 48 hours, dozens of Russian air raids hit southern and southeastern areas of Idlib province, the Observatory said.
The local councils of Kafr Zeita nad al-Hubait said the two towns are stricken due to the fierce aerial campaign.
At least 16 civilians including two children were killed in the strikes and as dozens of barrel bombs were dropped by regime aircraft, the Britain-based monitor said.
The raids prompted hundreds of families to take to the roads, as dozens of cars and trucks tried to ferry civilians away from the bombardment.
Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, as well as rival rebels.
The United Nations has warned that any offensive could force up to 800,000 people to flee their homes and urged key powerbrokers to avoid a "bloodbath".
Idlib's provincial health chief Munzer al-Khalil warned Saturday that a large-scale military operation could result in "the most catastrophic crisis in our war".
Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov, for his part, said Moscow had "irrefutable information" that Syrian rebels were planning a "provocation" in Idlib province to justify Western intervention.
More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's civil war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-Assad protests.
Zaman Al Wasl, AFP
Zaman Al Wasl
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