Activists in Syria say several air strikes have hit a village in the country’s northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least two people, as expectations mount of a government offensive to retake the rebel stronghold.
The bombings occurred on Tuesday in the countryside near the village of Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the province.
Idlib is the last major bastion of the rebel groups who have been trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.
At least 23 raids have been witnessed in the area on Tuesday morning, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker reported from Antakya in neighbouring Turkey.
“Activists are saying they saw Russian and Syrian regime war planes in the sky,” she said.
“Two civilians have been killed, but no major facilities have been hit at the moment. This comes after a hiatus of over three weeks without air strikes in the area. Everyone here is wondering if this is the start of the Syrian government offensive on Idlib,” she added.
Assad has sworn to recapture every inch of Syria and has made big gains against rebels since Russia joined the war effort in 2015.
His forces are amassing around the province of Idlib, presumably in preparation for the assault.
But Turkey, whose army has a string of observation posts around the edge of the rebel area, has warned against such an offensive.
US President Donald Trump has also warned Syria against “recklessly” attacking Idlib province.
Russia and Iran, however, have insisted that rebel groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back government forces.
“We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a “pocket of terrorism”.
Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.
Russia accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists armed groups in the province must be eliminated.
The United Nations has warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria’s seven-year-old conflict.
An estimated three million people – half of them displaced from other parts of Syria – live in the province and adjacent rebel-held areas.
Russian, Turkish and Iranian leaders are due to meet on September 7 in Iran and are expected to discuss the situation in northwestern Syria.
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SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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