Syrian regime artillery hit buffer zone, civilians killed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime artillery overnight pounded most of rebel-held areas in northern Syria, where Russia and Turkey agreed on a buffer zone in September, such an escalation followed the Israeli airstrikes on an Iranian site south of Damascus, local activists said.

The heavy artillery hit different parts in Aleppo, Hama and Idlib provinces, pushing more than 10,000 people to flee their villages in the southern countryside of Idlib.

On Thursday, 4 civilians, including children, were killed in regime artillery fire at Jarjanaz village, which lies on the inner edge of the 15-20 km (9-13 mile) deep zone, White Helmets rescuing agency said.

Last Saturday, the regime shelling killed seven children and two women in Jarjanaz.

The deal to create the demilitarized zone, running along the contact line between rebels and regime territory, staved off an army offensive against Idlib.

Intermittent exchanges of fire have broken out in northwest Syria since the agreement between Russia, a key Bashar al-Assad's ally, and Turkey, which backs some rebel factions.

The United Nations says nearly 3 million people live in the northwest region and has warned against a battle to restore state rule there.

Tahrir al-Sham and other hardline groups have refused to pull out their fighters from Idlib despite the de-militarized zone which was announced by rebel backer Ankara and Moscow in September to separate regime troops from rebel fighters in Idlib and adjacent areas.

Russia, Turkey and Iran failed on Thursday to make any tangible progress in setting up a Syrian constitutional committee at a meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana, the office of U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said in a statement Thursday.

De Mistura, who announced his resignation last month, capped his term as peace envoy with two days of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana.

"Special Envoy de Mistura deeply regrets ... there was no tangible progress in overcoming the ten-month stalemate on the composition of the constitutional committee," it said.

The two-day negotiations, concluding Thursday, are the 11th in Astana since Moscow began a diplomatic push in early 2017 that effectively sidelined other talks on Syria led by the United Nations

-Israel denies jet shot down-

The Israeli military denied reports that one of its fighter jets had been shot down Thursday in Syria.

"The news about an aircraft belonging to the Israeli military being hit by Syrian air defense systems is false," the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Syrian and Russian media reported earlier that the Bashar al-Assad regime’s air defense systems had neutralized some targets that were conducting airstrikes in the country’s south.

Some social media accounts close to the Assad regime claimed that an Israeli fighter jet had been downed.

In recent months, Israel has carried out a number of military operations inside Syrian territory targeting Syrian and Iranian military sites.

Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 470,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.

Zaman Al Wasl