03 February 2018•Update: 04 February 2018
By Eshref Musa and Burak Karacaoglu
IDLIB,Syria
At least seven people were killed in two regime airstrikes in northern Syria's Idlib province on Saturday, according to an official with the White Helmets civil defense agency.
"The airstrike attacks on civilian settlements in Idlib killed seven people and many civilians were injured," White Helmets director in Idlib, Mustafa Haj Yusuf told Anadolu Agency.
"Four civilians died in airstrike attacks conducted in Idlib's Saraqib district and three civilians in the Tell Mardikh [Ebla] village, seven in total,” he added.
Yusuf said that the airstrikes had intensified in past months.
Located in northern Syria near the Turkish border, the Idlib province was declared a "de-escalation zone".
Controlled by anti-regime armed groups, the province has been under intense airstrikes for the last two months.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
While UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, Syrian regime officials say the death toll is closer to 10,000.
