At least nine people have been killed, including three children, and 77 others injured as a result of a series of shelling by Syrian government forces on five camps for displaced people west of Idlib, in the north of the country and almost on the border with Turkey, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The organization, based in London but with sources inside the country, denounces that the attacks have been carried out with at least six rockets loaded with cluster munitions, declared illegal by the laws of war given their indiscriminate scope.
The group has specified that among the dead there are seven civilians (the other two people have not yet been identified) and has also taken the opportunity to denounce four additional bombings by Russian planes, allies of Damascus, on the west of Idlib. According to the White Helmets rescue service, «many of the wounded are in critical condition».
These rockets were allegedly fired, the organization notes on its website, from «positions of regime forces» near the Neirab airport in Aleppo.
At least one woman was also killed in these attacks, which hit the camps of Maram, Watan, Wadi Haj Khaled, Baiba and Kafr Rouhain, as well as the town of Maureen.
Shortly after, the Observatory announced new artillery shelling on the outskirts of Ariha, Urm al Yuz, Bayannin, Safuhan, Al Fatirah, Kfar Awaid, Al Ruwaihah and Shannan, in the Idlib countryside, as well as in the neighboring provinces of Hama and Aleppo to total attacks on a score of targets in the last hours.
The rocket fire has occurred, according to the Observatory, the day after five members of the Syrian forces in southwestern Idlib were killed in an attack by a group affiliated with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the former Al Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Syria.
It should be considered that HTS dominates about half of Idlib and the bordering areas of the nearby provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia. The region is home to three million people, about half of whom are displaced.
Despite sporadic clashes, the ceasefire negotiated in March 2020 by Moscow, an ally of Damascus, and Ankara, a supporter of the rebel groups, has been more or less respected. However, the situation in northern Syria has escalated in recent days since the HTS took control last week of the town of Afrin, hitherto controlled by Pro-Turkish militias.
