Idlib in 100 hours… Almost 1,650 air and ground strikes, along with heavy fighting, killed 163 civilians and soldiers, thousands of civilians continue to flee into the unknown

The military operation of regime forces in Idlib countryside continues with full support of Russian “guarantor”, where Russian aircrafts and regime warplanes and helicopters continue to escalate their air strikes on the eastern, south-eastern and southern countryside of idlib, coinciding with a ground escalation by regime forces, in light of continuous attack on areas southeast of Idlib since yesterday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported during the last 100 hours, significant civilian and military casualties, an increasing in population displacement and fluctuations in the map of control.

Air and ground bombardments are generally concentrated on the eastern countryside of Ma’rat al-Numan in Idlib province through hundreds of raids, barrel bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery, where regime helicopters dropped 186 barrel bombs, while regime warplanes carried out 134 raids, Russian “guarantor” aircraft carried out at least 113 air strikes, while regime forces targeted the area with more than 1,200 shells and rockets, the heavy and intensive bombardment caused significant civilian casualties, from Tuesday to dawn today, the Syrian Observatory has reported, 45 civilians, including 11 women and seven children were killed, where 11 civilians, including (two children and three women) were killed by Russian warplanes, while the rest were killed by the regime’s air strikes and its ground forces, the bombing left 120 wounded as well.

Violent military operations have also forced more civilian families to flee their areas, raising the number of civilians who were forced to flee to more than 72,000 the since early December, the displacement included areas from the eastern countryside of Maarat al-Numan (villages from Um Jalal to Masran and Maarat al-Numan to the vicinity of Abu al-Duhoor), as well as the towns and villages of Jabal al-Zawira, south of Idlib city, and villages east of Saraqeb in the eastern sector of Idlib countryside.

While regime forces and allied militias have taken control of at least 10 villages in the southeastern countryside of Idlib since the ground offensive that began on Thursday evening, the villages are: (Um Jalal, Um Al-Tweena, Al-Khariba, Rabia, Al-Shara, Barnan, Sahal, Al-Farjeh, Abu-Habeh and Al-Rafaa). The heavy fighting with factions and jihadists has also caused massive loss of life on both sides.

During 100 hours of shelling and clashes, the Syrian Observatory has documented 46 regime soldiers and allied militants were killed, 72 fighters, including 13 of factions while the rest of the jihadists, the fighting left dozens wounded on both sides.