BEIRUT: Syrian government forces shelling of a northwestern village Saturday killed at least nine people, including six children, as they picked olives, opposition activists said.
The shelling of the village of Qawqafeen, in Idlib province, is the latest violation of a truce reached in March 2020 between Russia and Turkey, who back rival sides in Syria’s 12-year conflict that has killed half a million people.
The aftermath of a monthslong Russian-backed government offensive has witnessed hundreds of lives lost or shattered in repeated breaches of the delicate agreement.
The recent atrocity unfolded in the village of Qawqafeen, where a farm became the target of shelling, resulting in a devastating toll of at least nine lives, including six children.
The grim report comes from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets. Amidst the horrors, the White Helmets, on the front lines of rescue efforts, tended to a wounded woman while compassionately delivering the bodies of the deceased to their grieving families.
This tragic episode underscores the persistent challenges to peace in a region marred by conflict and a truce that continues to face severe strain.
Idlib is home to more than 4 million people, many of them internally displaced by Syria’s conflict that broke out in March 2011. The war displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million and left large parts of Syria destroyed.