ANKARA 

At least three civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes in the Idlib de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria, a local civil defense agency said on Sunday. 

The airstrikes pounded the district of Marratinnuman, Maarat al-Naasan, Tawil al-Halib, al-Dar al-Kabirah in Idlib province, according to the Syrian opposition’s aircraft observatory.

At least three civilians were killed in the district of Maarat al-Naasan in the airstrikes, the White Helmets said.

The death toll from the attacks on residential areas in the Idlib de-escalation zone over the past month reached 75, including 13 children, said the White Helmets.

Moreover, the attacks on the ground were also carried out by Iran-backed terror groups supporting Bashar al-Assad regime in Idlib's villages of Kafr Nabl, Kafar Roma, Hass, Bsakla, Deir Sunbul and Hazareen.

Civil defense teams' search and rescue efforts are ongoing in the region.

Turkey and Russia agreed in September 2018 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.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to some four 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 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.