(Zaman Al Wasl)- A rescue worker and two-year-old child were killed Monday in a barrel-bomb attack on Maaret al-Numan, the northern city that turned into a relative ghost town as Russia-backed forces pressed to seize the eastern countryside of Idlib, Civil Defence agency said.
Monday’s aerial bombing has extended to the southern countryside of Aleppo, leaving 5 civilians wounded.
Regime forces have been bombarding southern and eastern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country, since late November. A ground offensive that began in mid-December has killed more than 100 people and displaced 280,000.
The Syrian Response Coordination Group more than 51,260 families have been displaced since the regime began its crushing assault on the southern and eastern countryside of Idlib.
Idlib region hosts some three million people, including many displaced by years of violence in other parts of Syria.
The Damascus regime, which now controls 70 percent of Syria, has repeatedly vowed to take back the area.
Meanwhile, about 500 Turkish-backed fighters have entered northern Idlib province, seeking to halt the crushing offensive, military commander told Zaman al-Wasl.
Abdullah Halawa, the military commander of Hamza Brigade, said the Syrian National Army has sent military personnel to the southern countryside of Idlib, in order to reinforce its units there and back fellow armed groups.
So far, the National Army has reinforced the battlefields of Idlib with 1500 fighters since late November, according to Halawa.
The Syrian National Army is an umbrella group in northern Syria consisting of an assortment of rebel forces. Many of the group’s factions, made up largely of Arab fighters, had already fought at Turkey’s behest in two previous military operations over the past three years,
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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