New satellite photos obtained Tuesday show significant damage to Syrian villages and surrounding farmland as a result of a government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the country.
The images, provided to The Associated Press by the Colorado-based Maxar Technologies, show fires in olive groves and orchards during harvest season around Kfar Nabudah and Habeet, two villages on the edge of Idlib province where the latest fighting has focused.
The fires were apparently sparked by intense bombing in the area.
Kafr Nbouda fell to government control on Sunday. Activists, experts and Maxar say the crop burning is part of a "scorched earth" campaign that adds to the hardship of 3 million people in the rebel stronghold.
The U.N. said fires, triggered by bombings, destroyed staple crops such as wheat and barley, compounding the already fragile humanitarian conditions in the area.
On Tuesday, the Idlib Health directorate said government rockets hit a hospital in the town of Kfar Nubul, causing extensive damage to the facility and to its generators and cars parked outside. The directorate said the hospital is now out of order.
This brings the total number of regional health facilities directly hit in the offensive to 21, including at least five which the U.N. had identified as medical centers.
Amnesty International has said that attacks on health facilities in opposition-held areas in Syria is part of a well-established pattern by government forces and their allies.
AP
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