Syrian regime artillery fire killed at least six civilians, 3 children and 3 women, in the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib, a Britain-based war monitor said Sunday.
The shelling took place in the village of Ehsim late Saturday, in the south of Idlib region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activists said.
A family member told AFP that visitors had gathered to congratulate a male relative on getting married when the shelling hit their home.
Earlier in the day, rockets fired by pro-regime forces killed six people in the village of Sarja, including three children and a rescue worker, meaning at least 11 were killed in total in Idlib on Saturday.
The shelling at Ehsim came hours after Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term, pledging to "liberate" areas still beyond government control.
The deaths are the latest violations of a ceasefire deal agreed by Turkey and Russia in March 2020 to stem a regime offensive on the jihadist-dominated stronghold.
An AFP photographer in Ehsim saw rescue workers under floodlights cut through a collapsed ceiling to retrieve the body of a woman.
Bundling her body up in a blanket, they then gently lowered it down a ladder and carried it into an ambulance.
Bordering Turkey, the northwestern Idlib region is home to around three million people, more than half displaced by fighting in other parts of war-torn Syria. Many rely on humanitarian aid to survive.
The region is dominated by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other rebel groups are also present.
Ten years of war in Syria have killed 500,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6.7 million as refugees to neighbouring countries. With Agencies
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.