BALADI NEWS
At least 130 children were among the 544 people killed in a Russian-led assault on the last rebel-held area of northwestern Syria over the last two months, according to an independent monitoring group.
Aided by Russian air power, the Syrian army launched an offensive on the rebel-held Idlib province and the nearby provinces on 26 April – and fighting has continued since then.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a London-based group with a number of monitors on the ground, said the area had been hit with cluster bombs and incendiary weapons.
More than 2,000 people had been injured, the organisation that briefs United Nations (UN) agencies added.
“The Russian military and its Syrian ally are deliberately targeting civilians with a record number of medical facilities bombed,” the group’s chairman, Fadel Abdul Ghany, said.
Aid groups have also criticised the offensive. An aerial strike on Kafr Nabl hospital made it the 30th to be bombed during the campaign. They said thousands would be left without access to medical access as a result.
Russia and the Syrian army deny indiscriminately targeting civilian areas. The have claimed the campaign is fending off against al-Qaeda militants who allegedly hit populated, government-held areas. They also accuse rebels of wrecking a ceasefire deal agreed last year between Turkey and Russia.
Source: The Independent.