seven civilians killed and six injured by army fire on a rebel stronghold, according to an NGO

The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions since 2011.

“The regime forces committed a massacre”, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). Seven civilians were killed and six others injured during bombardments by the Syrian army in northwest Syria, the last major rebel stronghold in the country, the OSDH said on Sunday, December 17.

Of the “artillery shells and rocket launchers” have aimed “residential areas (…) in Darat Izza, in the province of Aleppo”declared the NGO based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in the country at war. “At least five civilians, including a woman, were killed in Darat Izza, and two other civilians in the locality of Abzimou”in the same province, according to the OSDH, which adds that six other people were injured.

These strikes by the forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime come after the death of five of its soldiers, killed earlier in the day by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS, former local branch of Al-Qaeda). Attack itself launched in response to bombings by the Syrian army against residential areas of the city of Idleb, having caused “14 civilians injured” early in the afternoon, according to the OSDH.

The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions since the suppression of anti-government protests in 2011. The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the Turkey after a regime offensive in March 2020, but which was repeatedly violated.