MAARAT AL-NAASAN: Syrian regime shelling killed six civilians including women and children on Saturday in Idlib province, the country’s last main rebel bastion, a war monitor said.
A photographer at the scene reported seeing several bodies being taken away from a wrecked home in Maarat Al-Naasan, an area close to regime-controlled territory.
“The shell fell on a civilian home,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources on the ground in the war-torn country.
The monitor said two women and two children were among those killed, who were all from the same family. Many others were wounded.
The shelling had begun at around 1130 GMT, with more shells fired intermittently afterwards.
The Syrian regime and its ally Russia have regularly targeted hospitals and civilian areas since the start of the war in 2011, according to the observatory. The Idlib region bordering Turkey is home to about 3 million people and it is one of the last pockets to oppose Damascus.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, controls with its allies about half of the region and parts of neighboring provinces.
After a months-long military campaign to flush out the enclave sparked fears of the war’s worst bloodshed yet, a ceasefire deal was reached in March 2020. The agreement brokered by the regime and the rebels’ main backers — Russia and Turkey respectively — has largely held since, despite sporadic flare-ups.
But Damascus has intensified attacks on southern Idlib since June.
The war in Syria has killed around half a million people and displaced millions more, the observatory says.
![]()
Two women, two children among six killed in Syria regime shelling on Idlib
Short Url
https://arab.news/ny4km
Two women, two children among six killed in Syria regime shelling on Idlib
- Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, controls with its allies about half of the region and parts of neighboring provinces
UN food agency shutting down in Houthi-held northern Yemen
- World Food Program officials said 365 staff members will lose their jobs
- Houthis have cracked down on UN workers and aid groups in areas under their control
CAIRO: The United Nations food agency is shutting down its operations in northern Yemen, following restrictions imposed by Houthi militants and harassment from the Iranian-backed group, UN officials said Thursday.
The World Food Program’s move is likely to worsen the dire humanitarian conditions in the impoverished country amid the Houthis’ crackdown on UN workers and aid groups in areas under their control, as well as funding shortages.
Yemen descended into a devastating civil war in 2014, when the Houthis pushed from their northern stronghold of Saada province and seized the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government out and to the south, and eventually into exile.
The Houthis now control most of the country’s north, including Sanaa, while the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, rules the south.
According to the UN officials, the WFP’s 365 staff members in northern Yemen will lose their jobs by the end of March. One official blamed the “insecure operating environment” in the Houthi-controlled areas and lack of sufficient funding for the WFP decision.
Over the last few years, the Houthis have cracked down on the UN in their areas of control, detaining dozens of UN staffers as well as workers for nongovernmental and civil society groups, and staffers of diplomatic missions.
The group has escalated its crackdown in recent months, forcibly entering and occupying UN premises in Sanaa and other elsewhere. They have claimed, without offering evidence, that detained UN staff and employees of other organizations and embassies are spies, which the UN has denied.
The crackdown severely restricted humanitarian operations in the Houthi-held areas, which account to around 70 percent of humanitarian needs in the country, according to the UN
Ramesh Rajasingham, who directs humanitarian operations in Yemen, told the UN Security Council earlier this month that more than 18 million people in Yemen could face acute food insecurity in the coming month, with tens of thousands at risk of slipping into “catastrophic hunger” and facing famine-like conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said humanitarian operations in Yemen in 2025 were just 25 percent funded. The gap, OCHA said in a Jan. 4 report, forced UN agencies and aid groups to scale back life-saving services across all sectors, particularly health and protection programs.
This left “millions of people without essential care and exposed to heightened risks,” the agency said.
The World Food Program’s move is likely to worsen the dire humanitarian conditions in the impoverished country amid the Houthis’ crackdown on UN workers and aid groups in areas under their control, as well as funding shortages.
Yemen descended into a devastating civil war in 2014, when the Houthis pushed from their northern stronghold of Saada province and seized the capital of Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government out and to the south, and eventually into exile.
The Houthis now control most of the country’s north, including Sanaa, while the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, rules the south.
According to the UN officials, the WFP’s 365 staff members in northern Yemen will lose their jobs by the end of March. One official blamed the “insecure operating environment” in the Houthi-controlled areas and lack of sufficient funding for the WFP decision.
Over the last few years, the Houthis have cracked down on the UN in their areas of control, detaining dozens of UN staffers as well as workers for nongovernmental and civil society groups, and staffers of diplomatic missions.
The group has escalated its crackdown in recent months, forcibly entering and occupying UN premises in Sanaa and other elsewhere. They have claimed, without offering evidence, that detained UN staff and employees of other organizations and embassies are spies, which the UN has denied.
The crackdown severely restricted humanitarian operations in the Houthi-held areas, which account to around 70 percent of humanitarian needs in the country, according to the UN
Ramesh Rajasingham, who directs humanitarian operations in Yemen, told the UN Security Council earlier this month that more than 18 million people in Yemen could face acute food insecurity in the coming month, with tens of thousands at risk of slipping into “catastrophic hunger” and facing famine-like conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said humanitarian operations in Yemen in 2025 were just 25 percent funded. The gap, OCHA said in a Jan. 4 report, forced UN agencies and aid groups to scale back life-saving services across all sectors, particularly health and protection programs.
This left “millions of people without essential care and exposed to heightened risks,” the agency said.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.