IDLIB, Syria

Two civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes on a village in northwestern Syria, local sources said on Wednesday.

According to the Syrian opposition’s aircraft observatory, a Russian warplane took off late Tuesday from the Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia and carried out airstrikes on the village of Ein Shib in the Idlib province.

Five civilians were injured in the attacks, said the White Helmets, a civil defense group.

The injured people were transferred to nearby hospitals.

In September 2018, Türkiye and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the zone.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN estimates.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara