Airstrikes in Syria's key rebel enclave displace 8,000



BEIRUT (dpa)- Some 8,000 people have been displaced in the past 24 hours by multiple airstrikes by Syrian government forces and allied Russia in the north-western rebel enclave of Idlib, a war monitor reported on Wednesday.
"The intensity of the random bombardment in the area, mainly in the southern countryside of Idlib, and the resulting massive destruction have prompted many families to leave their houses and head to camps near the Syrian-Turkish border," Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa.




On April 30, the Syrian government, supported by Russian air power, began a large-scale offensive against rebels in the provinces of Hama and Idlib, forcing thousands of people to flee.
The Syrian forces have since regained territory from the rebels in the two neighbouring provinces.
David Swanson, the spokesman of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jordan, could not confirm the latest numbers of those displaced by the ongoing bout of violence in Idlib.
"The situation on the ground remains fluid," he told dpa. "While we don't have confirmation on the actual numbers, there is renewed displacement from southern Idlib northward and it’s significant," he added. 
At least 30 civilians, mainly children, have been killed since Monday by Syrian and Russian airstrikes in rural Idlib, according to Abdel-Rahman.
Idlib is the last rebel stronghold in Syria.
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Wednesday, December 18th 2019
dpa
           


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