“Regime forces carried out the massacre by directly targeting residential areas with artillery shells and rocket launchers in Darat Iza, Aleppo province,” said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has an extensive network of sources in Syria. .
“At least five civilians were killed in Darat Iza and two more civilians in Abzimu town in the same province,” she added.
Earlier in northern Latakia province, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria, killed five soldiers, SOHR said.
It said the HTS attack was in response to the wounding of 14 civilians in residential areas of Idlib earlier on Sunday in Syrian army bombardments.
HTS controls Idlib province and parts of the neighboring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.
Damascus, the United States and the European Union consider HTS a terrorist group.
HTS regularly clashes with forces in Syria and its ally Russia.
HTS is the main rebel organization operating in northwest Syria, but there are other groups, some backed by Turkey, and there have been fierce clashes in recent weeks.
In late November, Syrian government bombardment in Idlib province killed nine civilians, including six children who were picking olives, SOHR said.
The civil war in Syria began after President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on peaceful anti-government protests in 2011.
After a government offensive in Idlib in March 2020, a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey was declared, but it has been repeatedly violated.
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2024-08-02 08:08:03
