Syrian regime attack kills 2 civilians in Idlib province

By Ahmet Karaahmet and Ethem Emre Ozcan

IDLIB, Syria (AA) - Two civilians were killed and nine others were injured in an attack carried out by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria’s Idlib province on Monday.

The Assad regime and Iran-backed foreign terrorist groups based in eastern Idlib attacked Sarmin town with land-to-surface weapons.

The White Helmets civil defense group said in a statement that a child and a woman were killed and a total of nine civilians, including three children and two women, were injured in the attack.

The injured people were referred to hospitals in the region.

At the Astana meeting in Kazakhstan in 2017, Türkiye, Russia, and Iran agreed to create four "de-escalation zones" in areas not under the control of the Syrian regime.

Damascus, Iranian-backed terrorists and Russia continued their offensive, seizing three of the four zones before turning to Idlib.

Türkiye reached an additional agreement with Russia in Sept. 2018 to strengthen the cease-fire, but the attacks intensified again in May 2019.

The cease-fire has been largely maintained following a new agreement between the two countries on March 5, 2020.

From 2017 to 2020, around 2 million civilians fleeing attacks were forced to migrate to areas near the Turkish border.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar in Ankara