Shelling kills four children in Hama province
Government forces attacked Qastoun, a village in northwestern Syria, an area still not under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who last month promised to free it from Jihadi groups. A local ceasefire between Russia and Turkey has been in force since March 2020.
Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Four children from the same family were killed in northwestern Syria by shelling from government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SHOR) reported.
The attack, which took place in Qastoun, a village in Hama province, near Idlib, was part of a military offensive that began in late June.
Northwestern Syria, including the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo, are still not fully under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The area is still a jihadi and rebel stronghold, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
In Idlib, a ceasefire has been in place between Russia and Turkey since March 2020. Two thirds of the province’s residents have been displaced.
For the past two years the truce has been respected, but after Assad was sworn in for a fourth term, Syrian government forces stepped up their attacks in the southern part of the province in order to liberate “those parts of the homeland that still need to be”.
Government forces also clashed with rebel groups in Deraa, southern Syria.
SHOR described the latest round of violence as the worst since 2018, when government forces retook parts of the province.
Currently, Assad and his forces hold about two-thirds of the territory.
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19/02/2020 18:14
