Artillery fire from regime-controlled territory and airstrikes on Saturday killed at least eight civilians in Syria's last rebel enclave, most of them children, and destroyed a civil defence centre and a water station, rescue workers and a war monitor said.
Shelling struck the home of a volunteer of the rescue service called the White Helmets, in Balion village in southern Idlib province, killing his two children.
The volunteer, Omar al-Omar, and his wife were wounded, according to the White Helmets, who are also known as Syria Civil Defence.
Shelling also struck the nearby village of Ibleen and hit the home of Subhi al-Assi, killing him, his wife and three of his children in their sleep, according to the White Helmets and Idlib's Health Directorate.
Al-Assi was an administrator in a local health centre.
In a nearby village, another child was killed and four others from the same family were wounded, according to the White Helmets.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the shelling and casualties.
The Observatory said the shelling was followed by airstrikes, suspected to be carried out by Russian warplanes, hit areas west of Idlib city.
The White Helmets said one of its centres was targeted and destroyed in the air raid, putting it out of service.
Five volunteers were slightly injured. A water station in the area was also hit and put out of service, the White Helmets said.
The area has seen rising violence in recent weeks between regime forces and insurgents on the edge of the last rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Idlib despite a truce brokered last year.
The truce was negotiated between Turkey, which supports Syria's opposition, and Russia, the Syrian government's main backer.
At the time, it halted a crushing Russian-backed regime air and ground campaign aimed at retaking the region where nearly 4 million people, most of them displaced, live. AP
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