Air raids kill 12 civilians in a market in Syria’s Idlib, says a monitor group

Air strikes by the Syrian regime or its ally Moscow killed 12 civilians in a market in Syria’s Idlib province, a monitor said Wednesday, as fierce fighting raged for the militant-held northwestern region.

Another 18 people were wounded when the warplanes hit the militant-held town of Maarat al-Numan around midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The market was crowded with people out and about after breaking the daytime fast observed by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.

The strikes came as heavy clashes raged in the north of neighboring Hama province after the militants launched a counterattack on Tuesday against pro-government forces in the town of Kafr Nabuda.

Fresh fighting on Wednesday took the death toll to 52 - 29 troops and militia and 23 militants, the Observatory said.

It said that the militants had retaken most of the town from government forces who recaptured it on May 8.

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The militant-dominated Idlib region is nominally protected by a buffer zone deal, but the regime and its Russian ally have escalated their bombardment of it in recent weeks, seizing several towns on its southern flank.

A militant alliance led by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, controls a large part of Idlib province as well as adjacent slivers of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.

Russia and rebel ally Turkey inked the buffer zone deal in September to avert a government offensive on the region which threatened humanitarian disaster for its three million residents.

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President Bashar al-Assad’s government has renewed its bombardment of the region since HTS took control in January.

Russia too has stepped up its air strikes in recent weeks as Turkey proved unable to secure implementation of the truce deal by the militants.

Turkey has designated Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization, according to a presidential decision published on August 31, 2018.

The Observatory says more than 180 civilians have been killed in the flare-up since April 30, and the United Nations has said tens of thousands have fled their homes.