BEIRUT: At least eight people were killed by Syrian government shelling of the rebel-held Idlib province on Friday, according to a monitoring group — the highest daily toll since a Russian-Turkish demilitarization zone was set up around the region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in the town of Jarjanaz, which lies on the inner edge of the 15-20 km (9-13 mile) deep zone agreed in September.
The agreement, struck between Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s most powerful ally, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, staved off a government offensive to retake Idlib and adjacent opposition-held regions.
The UN says around 3 million people live in those areas and has said a battle to restore Assad’s control there could be the worst of the seven-year-old war.
Russia has said rebels are trying to wreck the Russian-Turkish initiative and Damascus has said Turkey seems unwilling to implement it. But Turkey says the deal is going to plan.
The Observatory, a British-based monitoring group, has reported regular exchanges of fire between government and rebels since the September deal. At least 18 people have been killed by government shelling since then.
Idlib is held by an array of rebels, the most powerful being Tahrir Al-Sham, an amalgamation of Islamist groups dominated by the former Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate until 2016.
On Thursday, Tahrir Al-Sham said it had raided government positions in a village in eastern Idlib province in response to government attacks. In a statement on its Telegram channel, it said it had killed 10 people, injured others and captured ammunition.
Shelling kills eight in de-escalation zone around Syria’s Idlib
Shelling kills eight in de-escalation zone around Syria’s Idlib
- Idlib is held by an array of rebels, the most powerful being Tahrir Al-Sham
Sudan paramilitary drone strike on school kills two children: medical source
- Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and left around 11 million people displaced
KHARTOUM: A drone strike blamed on Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed two children and injured 12 others Wednesday in the southern city of El-Rahad, a medical source told AFP.
El-Rahad lies in Sudan’s Kordofan region, currently the fiercest battlefield in the war raging between the RSF and the regular army since April 2023.
“I saw a dozen students injured,” Ahmed Moussa, an eyewitness to the attack, told AFP, adding that the drone had struck a traditional Qur'anic school.
El-Rahad, in North Kordofan state, was retaken by the army last February, as part of a rapid offensive that saw it push west to break a long-running siege on state capital El-Obeid.
The RSF has been trying to re-encircle El-Obeid since, including by launching successive drone strikes on the main highway out of the city, which connects the western region of Darfur with the capital Khartoum.
Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and left around 11 million people displaced, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
