Nine civilians, including six children, killed in regime forces' shelling in northwest Syria

Nine civilians, including six children, were killed on Saturday in shelling by regime forces targeting olive fields in northwest Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

The Observatory reported that "ground shelling targeted civilians working in olive harvest in the village of Qoqfin in southern Idlib countryside." 

The shelling resulted in the death of nine civilians, including a woman and six children, and others were wounded. 

Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham controls about half of Idlib province in the northwest and limited areas in the neighboring provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, and Hama. The region is home to around three million people, almost half of whom are displaced. 

A ceasefire has been in place in the region since 2020 after a three-month-long wide-scale attack by Damascus. However, occasional violations occur, including clashes and exchanges of shelling, as well as airstrikes by regime forces and their ally Russia. 

In recent weeks, regime forces have intensified their targeting of the region following a drone attack last month that targeted the military academy in Homs, resulting in more than a hundred deaths. It was one of the bloodiest attacks against the army since the conflict began in 2011. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Since 2011, Syria has been in a deadly conflict that has resulted in the death of over half a million people, causing massive destruction to infrastructure and displacing millions of residents within and outside the country. 

AFP