Russian air strikes kill 10 civilians in Syria’s Idlib

BEIRUT: Air strikes by regime ally Russia killed 10 civilians in the jihadist-held region of Idlib in northwestern Syria Friday, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said those killed included two children.The raids took the lives of three civilians including a boy on the outskirts of the town of Kafranbel, and seven including a girl in the town of Tal Hawash, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Russia and rebel-backer Turkey in September inked a buffer zone deal to prevent a massive regime offensive on the Idlib region, near the Turkish border.But the region of some three million people has come under increasing bombardment since former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took full control of it in January.