(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 84 civilians, including 32 children, have been killed by the Russian-backed regime forces in ten days in northern Syria, Syria's Response Coordinators group said Friday.
Five civilians, including three children killed Thursday in regime airstrikes on Idlib province as regime forces suffer setbacks and heavy losses.
According to Zaman al-Wasl reporter, the victims were from the same family as regime strikes hit the town of Saraqeb.
The airstrikes and shelling came amid a regime offensive on the northwestern provinces of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country, and rebel-held parts of nearby Aleppo province.
Most of Idlib province and parts of Aleppo province are still controlled by factions opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Regime-run media said rebels had launched a major attack on regime forces in Idlib on Thursday that Russia's defence ministry said killed up to 40 Syrian soldiers.
Russia's defence ministry said that militants had seized two settlements in one of the offensives, which began on Wednesday, forcing regime troops to abandon some of their positions in the southeast of the so-called Idlib de-escalation zone under rocket fire.
Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the National Liberation Front coalition of rebel groups, disputed the Syrian media and Russian government accounts and said no such assault had taken place on Wednesday or Thursday.
Mustafa said attacks had been carried out against regime forces earlier in the week as a response to stepped up strikes against them in Idlib, but the area had seen no operations over the past 24 hours.
The Syrian Observatory war monitor also said there was no attack on government forces in Idlib on Thursday but that it had recorded about 400 Russian and Syrian airstrikes on the area since Wednesday, part of a stepped up assault since December.
Idlib province alone is home to at least three million people, many of whom are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
According to the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, almost 350,000 people have fled their homes since December 1, mainly heading northwards from southern Idlib, which has borne the brunt of the air strikes, according to AFP.
The International Rescue Committee has warned that an additional 650,000 people, the majority of them children and women, could be forced from their homes if the violence continues.
RUSSIA ACCUSES WEST OF BIAS
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western countries of "bias" and "double standards" with selective aid to Syria's opposition territories.
Speaking on Friday at a meeting with UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, Lavrov said "key Western capitals" do not want to send humanitarian aid to the regime controlled Syrian regions.
He said that instead the aid is sent to "the territories controlled by opposition and sometimes by radical opposition."
Lavrov also said "terrorists" hinder the delivery of the humanitarian aid to the Syrian territories, and asked target groups in Geneva to consider this issue.
Russian Foreign Minister admitted that the Constitutional Committee has not achieved "great results" but added that it was not "the end goal".
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen agreed saying the important was "to continue to meet" and "to build confidence" between parties.
Pedersen also noted that 50% of Syrian population have left their homes and the priority for international society was to settle this issue first before proceeding to political questions.
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies
Zaman Al Wasl
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