IDLIB, Syria

At least six licivilians have been killed in an airstrike on residential areas in Syria’s northern de-escalation zones, local sources said on Sunday.

The sources said an unidentified warplane raided late Saturday Qalaat Al-Madiq town and Al-Hawash village, both located in the western countryside of Hama city and fall within the de-escalation zones.

Sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency said five civilians, including two women, had been killed in the airstrike in Qalaat Al-Madiq.

Hours later, the White Helmets confirmed another woman was killed in today’s bombardment in al-Huwayz, northwest of Hama.

According to the Syrian opposition aircraft observatory, Qalaat Al-Madiq and Al-Hawash were targeted by a "Russian jet which took off from the Khmeimim airbase in Syria’s western Latakia province".

Last September, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be strictly prohibited.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat