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Four boys died on Monday in the northwest of the country. They were killed by rocket fire from regime forces.
The little victims were buried in a cemetery in Maarat al-Naassane.
AFP
Four students were killed Monday morning by a bombardment in the northwest of the country. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a rocket attack by regime forces targeted Maarat al-Naassane, a locality north of Idleb, causing the death of at least four boys who were surrendering walk to school.
Photos taken by an AFP correspondent on the spot show three small bodies of children placed in black plastic bags, deposited in a van before being buried in a cemetery in Maarat al-Naassane. The fourth boy later died from his injuries.
According to the OSDH, the causes of the bombardment of this locality are not clear. Maarat al-Naassane is controlled by factions opposed to the regime in Damascus. Strong tensions oppose these groups to the forces of the Syrian regime. A Turkish forces checkpoint is also located on the outskirts of the town.
On February 12, six civilians from the same family, including two children and two women, died in Maarat al-Naassane during a regime strike on their house, according to the OSDH. The Idlib region is home to around three million people, two-thirds of whom are displaced from other parts of Syria. The jihadist group HTS and its allies control regarding half of the province as well as parts of neighboring provinces.
The region has been under a ceasefire since March 2020, following a three-month regime offensive that displaced nearly a million people, according to the UN. Despite repeated violations, the ceasefire has generally held, but since June 2021 regime forces have intensified shelling targeting the south of the region. The Syrian conflict has killed an estimated half a million people, devastated infrastructure and caused the largest displacement of people since World War II.
(AFP)