Syria: Russian Airstrike On Idlib Market Kills 25

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DENIAL OF RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY



By Esref Musa and Burak Karacaoglu



At least 25 civilians were killed in a Russian airstrike Monday on a marketplace in de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency.



Russian jets struck the marketplace in Idlib province's Maarat Al-Numan city, killing 25 people, including a White Helmets volunteer, Mustafa Haj Yusuf, the head of the civil defense agency in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency.



According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, Russian and regime warplanes also carried out attacks on the town of Bidama and the villages of Talmenes and Al-Kabina.



The Russian Defense Ministry, however, denied that its forces had targeted a marketplace, saying that Russian warplanes had not conducted any mission in the area.



Monday's deaths bring the toll to 42 in the past 24 hours as 17 civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes in the same de-escalation zone on Sunday.



Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.



The Syrian regime, however, has consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.



Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.



Writing by Mahmoud Barakat and Elena Teslova -