According to the official agency Sana, a civilian was injured in the bombing of the village of Qardaha in western Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s family comes from, by “terrorist groups” on Wednesday.
This bombing came a day after the deaths of five people, including two civilians, in Russian air force attacks against the Idleb province, which controls a large part of the rebel groups.
According to the Sana agency, citing a police source from the coastal province of Latakia, “five shells fired by terrorist groups” aimed at “agricultural land in the Qardaha region, injuring a citizen.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a UK-based NGO with an extensive network of sources in Syria, said the shells were fired by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the outskirts of Idlib province.
This is the second time the Alawite town, the cradle of the Assad family, has been bombed in two months. On June 23, a civilian was killed in a drone strike attributed to rebel groups.
The HTS group, which emerged from the former local affiliate of al-Qaeda, regularly carries out attacks against areas controlled by the Syrian army, often using drones.
Russia, the main supporter of President Assad’s regime, has been militarily intervening in Syria since 2015 and has stepped up crackdowns on the Idlib region in recent weeks.
Russian attacks on Tuesday targeted HTS bases in that region, the last major rebel stronghold in northwest Syria, home to three million people, half of whom are displaced, with three militants killed, according to the OSDH.
According to rescuers, at least two civilians were also killed in other Russian raids on Tuesday evening.
Thirteen HTS fighters were killed in Russian attacks on Sunday night.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire negotiated by Russia and Turkey following a regime offensive in March 2020.
The conflict in Syria, sparked by the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions.