Russia has expanded its military operations in Damascus and its suburbs as well as in Idlib province, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and knocking a hospital in rural Idlib out of service.
Local news networks said that airstrikes by the Assad regime killed 18 people in the town of Misraba and six others in the town of Irbeen in eastern Ghouta on Wednesday. Two children and a woman were killed in similar attacks on the town of Beit Sawa in eastern Ghouta.
Regime forces also bombed the towns of Ayn Tarma, Hazza and Otaya in eastern Ghouta, injuring more than 15 civilians.
Activists in Idlib province said that Russian jets continue to carry out airstrikes in the province. They said that the airstrikes killed at least eight people and destroyed large parts of a hospital in the town of Ma’arat al-Nu’man and a bakery in the town of Saraqib, putting them out of service.
The Syrian Coalition condemned the continued airstrikes and artillery shelling on southern rural Idlib by regime forces and their allied Iranian militias and the Russian occupation warplanes.
“The bombing campaign in Idlib, now in its third week, continues to target civilians and commit war crimes in violation of all agreements reached in Syria,” said the Coalition in a press release issued on Thursday.
“The Assad regime and its allies are exploiting the silence of the international community and its failure to shoulder its responsibilities towards the protection of civilians and the maintaining of peace and security.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)