Syria: Two civilians killed in Russian air strikes on Idlib province
Russian air strikes in opposition controlled northwestern Syria killed two people on Tuesday evening, the White Helmets rescue group said.
An AFP correspondent at the scene reported that two Russian raids were launched in the town of Ain Shib, west of the city of Idlib.
"Two men, both civilians, were killed...and five other civilians including a woman and two children were wounded,” said a volunteer with the White Helmets, Rami al-Dandal, speaking to AFP.
One of the dead was 18-years-old and the other elderly, Dandal added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian air strikes targeted a rebel-held base north of Idlib city, targeting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), killing three.
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According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) at least seven other members of HTS were wounded alongside five other civilians.
The rebel-held Idlib region is home to about three million people and one of the last opposition held areas in the country.
Earlier this month Russian warplanes killed at least three civilians from the same family in the northwest region of Idlib.
In June, Russian air strikes killed at least 13 people in Idlib province in an attack described by the SOHR as the deadliest of the year.
Nine civilians, including two children, were among the dead, with six people killed in a fruit market in Jisr Al-Shughur.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria since war broke out in 2011, many of them civilians, and millions have been internally and externally displaced, with many becoming refugees, predominantly in the Middle East and Europe.
After opposition gains in the early years of the war, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was able to turn the tide with Russian and Iranian backing, and opposition forces are now in control of only portions of the northern part of the country.
The last pocket of armed opposition to the government includes large areas of Idlib province and parts of the neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
HTS, headed by ex-members of Syria's former al-Qaeda franchise, is the dominant group in the area, but other rebel groups are also active there with varying degrees of Turkish backing.
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