(Zaman Al Wasl)- The education process has been suspended in stricken province of Idlib as the Syrian regime trigger for its deadliest offensive in seven years of brutal war.
The Education Directorate said the schools and education centers have turned into main target to regime warplanes. Halt teaching will save children's lives, officials say.
Two schools in the town of Jarjnaz were hit by the regime airstrikes, leaving several students wounded.
About 20 civilians killed and fields hospital put out of service in the past few days in the strikes and as dozens of barrel bombs were dropped by regime aircrafts, local activists and monitoring groups said.
Idlib, Syria's last major rebel bastion, was targeted 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.
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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