Russia carried out airstrikes in northern Idlib province, killing at least three civilians, a Syrian civil defense group said Monday.
The White Helmets civil defense group said three others were injured in the attacks.
More than 20 airstrikes targeted two mountains and three villages in the Jabal al-Zawiya region, and two other villages in the northwestern countryside of the Hama province, the Syrian opposition aircraft observatory said.
Search and rescue efforts are underway in the area.
The strikes followed an attack by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who briefly captured several regime-held positions on Monday, in fighting that left more than 40 fighters dead on both sides, opposition activists said
The anti-regime offensive was among the most serious since early March, when an agreement between Turkey and Russia halted the Syrian government’s three-month air and ground campaign into Idlib province.
Monday’s fighting took place around the Jabal al-Zawiya region on the southern edge of the northwestern province, the last remaining rebel stronghold in the country.
Russia is a main backer of Bashar Assad, while Turkey backs opposition fighters trying to remove him from power. Russia and Turkey have become the main power brokers in the war-torn country.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said government forces launched a counter offensive under the cover of Russian airstrikes later Monday afternoon, regaining control of the villages of Fatatra and Manara that they lost earlier in the day.
The Observatory said 22 insurgents and 19 troops were killed in the fighting.
Idlib-based activist Taher al-Omar said insurgents led by members of al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, captured three positions and took one prisoner. He added that HTS is sending reinforcements to the frontlines.
A similar attack on a nearby area in early May left more than 50 gunmen dead and government forces regained the area hours later.
Agencies
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