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Monitor: Regime Bombardment kills 14 Civilians in Northwest Syria

Agence France-Presse

   BEIRUT - Syrian regime air strikes and artillery fire on Tuesday killed
   14 civilians in the last major opposition bastion in the northwest of
   the country, a war monitor said.

   The jihadist-held region of Idlib is supposed to be protected by a
   months-old cease-fire deal to prevent a broad regime offensive, but
   deadly bombardment has continued.

   The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime
   artillery fire killed six civilians from the same family-- including a
   mother and her three children-- in the village of Badama.

   In the village of Maasaran, regime air strikes killed a further four
   civilians.

   An AFP photographer on site saw a pool of red blood and clothes strewn
   on the pavement by a shop whose window had been shattered.

   "That's the regime for you," a resident said, as he helped a shopkeeper
   pick up some items of clothing.

   Pro-government bombardment also led to four other civilians losing
   their lives in other parts of the bastion, the Observatory said.

   The Idlib region, which is home to some three million people including
   many displaced by Syria's civil war, is controlled by the country's
   former al-Qaida affiliate.

   The Damascus regime has repeatedly vowed to take back control of it.

   Pro-government forces launched a blistering offensive against the
   region in April, killing around 1,000 civilians and displacing more
   than 400,000 people from their homes.

   Moscow announced a cease-fire in late August, but the Observatory says
   deadly bombardment and skirmishes have persisted.

   It says more than 200 civilians have been killed in the region since
   the deal.

   Syria's war has killed over 370,000 people and displaced millions from
   their homes since beginning in 2011 with the brutal repression of
   anti-government protests.