Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally killed 18 civilians including five children in northwest Syria Wednesday, a monitoring group said, in the latest violence to hit the opposition bastion.
Among these, 10 civilians including three children, all from the same family, were killed in Russian airstrikes near the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Wednesday's aerial campaign has also targeted the town of Ariha, according to Walid Aslan, head of the Civil Defense in town, killing a woman and two children and wounding.
The Syrian regime and its Russian ally have stepped up their deadly bombardment of the Idlib region and adjacent areas in Aleppo and Hama provinces since late April.
In the 72 hours at least 60 civilians have been killed. Seven people, including 3 children, killed on Tuesday and more than 50 in deadly Monday when the Russia's warplanes struck a vegetable market and surrounding areas in the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.
The jihadist-run Idlib region is home to some three million people and is supposed to be protected by a months-old international truce deal.
The spike in violence since late April has killed more than 700 civilians, including more than 170 children, according to the Observatory.
More than 330,000 people have fled violence in the area over the past three months, according to the United Nations.
Mark Cutts, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, described a worsening "nightmare" unfolding in Idlib.
"Today saw one of the deadliest attacks on civilian areas that we have seen since the upsurge in fighting began almost three months ago," he said in a Monday statement.
Syria's war has killed more than 560,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies
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