Syrian child killed in regime attacks in Idlib

By Esref Musa, Burak Karacaoglu, Levent Tok

IDLIB, Syria

A Syrian child was killed in shelling by regime forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency.

"Since midnight, regime forces targeted Tamaniya village with at least 80 artillery attacks," Mustafa Haj Yusuf, the White Helmets head in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency.

"In the morning hours, a child lost his life in another attack on Jarjnaz village," he added.

Last September in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to establish the Idlib de-escalation zone.

The following month saw all heavy weapons withdrawn from the de-escalation zone by Syrian opposition and anti-regime groups.

Nevertheless, according to the White Helmets, at least 30 people in Idlib were killed in January, including women and children, while another 180 were injured -- in Idlib, Hama and Latakia -- by regime drone attacks and artillery fire.

Last month also saw the regime target Idlib’s southeastern countryside, along with rural parts of the Aleppo, Latakia and Hama provinces.

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.