About 12 hours of the temporary Turkish – Russian truce… a total stop for the aerial and ground shelling after 18 days of the heaviest escalation in the area by about 13200 air and land strikes which -along with clashes- killed about 480 people
The relative and cautious calm continues to prevail all over “Putin – Erdogan” area, which stretches from the northeastern Latakia mountains to the northwestern suburbs of Aleppo city, passing through the countryside of Hama and Idlib, this calm has been prevailing since midnight of yesterday until now according to the Russian – Turkish temporary truce for about 72 hours, where warplanes and helicopters continue to be absent in the sky of the “de-escalation” area since about 12 hours ago, while the Syrian Observatory monitored breaches of this undeclared truce represented by the fall of shells launched by the regime forces on the outskirts of Bidama village in the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur, in addition to the aerial and ground targeting of the main base of the Russian “guarantor” in Syria, Hmeimim airbase, in addition to the rocket shells which were launched by the jihadi groups on the countryside of Jableh city, which killed a member of the regime forces and injuring several others.
This cautious calm comes after 18 days of the heaviest escalation seen in “Putin – Erdogan” area in terms of aerial and ground bombardment and shelling, is addition to the military operations on the ground, where the Syrian Observatory monitored during the period from the 30th of April 2019, until Friday, the 17th of May 2019, more than 3187 airstrikes targeted several areas of Latakia Idlib, Hama and Aleppo, and they are 1656 barrel bombs dropped by regime’s helicopters, 861 air raids carried out by regime’s warplanes, and 670 air raids by the Russian warplanes, and on the ground; the Syrian Observatory monitored at least 9980 ground strikes carried out by the regime forces (by shells and missile), in addition to tens of shells and missiles launched by the jihadi factions and groups during this period targeting places controlled by the regime forces and the clash areas, while the regime forces supported by gunmen loyal to them were able during the last few days of the heaviest escalation; to achieve several advancement with a cover of intense aerial and ground bombardment and shelling, and took control of 16 areas within the countryside of Hama, they are: Qal’aat al-Madiq, al-Karakat, Twyna, Kafr Nabudah, al-Bana, Tal Osman, al-Mestriha, al-Sharia, Bab al-Taqa, al-Jabriya, Tal Hawash, al-Tawba, al-Sheikh Idris, al-Muhajreen, al-Hamraa, and Hwaiz.
And during the 18th day in the period between the 30th of April 2019 and the 17th of May 2019, the Syrian Observatory documented the death of 479 people, they are 161 civilians including 30 children and 37 citizen women, and they are 33 including 7 female children and 9 women, another woman and two of her children, were killed in Russian aerial bombardment on the countryside of Idlib and Hama, and 25 including 7 women and a child girl were killed in the fall of barrel bombs, and 54 including 12 women, 11 children, and a member of the rescue teams were killed in targeting by regime’s warplanes, also 29 people including 5 women and a child were killed in a ground shelling carried out by the regime forces, and 20 citizens including 9 children and 3 women were killed in shelling by the factions on al-Suqaylabiyah, while at least 168 of the jihadi groups were killed in the Russian airstrikes and the regime’s shelling, in addition to the killing of 150 members of the regime forces in targeting and shelling by jihadi groups and factions.