Two killed in Syrian regime shelling in Idlib: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least two civilians were killed, and eight others were injured due to Syrian regime shelling in eastern rebel-held Idlib on Friday night, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, reported that Syrian army shelling targeted the Taftanaz town in rebel-held Idlib on Friday night, killing two, including a child, and injuring eight others.

The Syrian Civil Defense volunteer rescue services, also known as the White Helmets said on X that at least six children were injured in the attack.

The area is among a stretch of frontline between Syrian government forces and the jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
 
HTS is the prominent force among dozens of rebel factions operating in the area and has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.  
 
Half of Idlib province, as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces, are the last rebel-held bastions in the country after President Bashar al-Assad, with Russian and Iranian support, seized back swathes of territory throughout the brutal Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011.

The White Helmets said that since the start of the year, its teams have “responded to more than 650 attacks by regime forces, Russia, and from areas under joint control of regime forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF].”