IDLIB, Syria

At least five civilians, including two children, were killed in Russian airstrikes in the Idlib de-escalation zone of Syria on Thursday, according to the Syrian civil defense agency.

Mustafa Haj Yousuf, head of the White Helmets in the northwestern Idlib province, said three civilians, including two children, were killed in Qafrnabil town and one in Fattira and Has villages each.

Meanwhile, Assad regime forces and Russian warplanes target opposition frontlines and residential areas that fall within the de-escalation zone.

In 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to some 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces from throughout the war-weary country.

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

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.