IDLIB, Syria

Three civilians were killed Thursday in attacks by the Assad regime and its allies in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, local sources said.

According to the White Helmets civil-defense agency, a regime airstrike left two civilians dead in Maarat al-Numan city, while a third civilian was killed by regime artillery in the nearby town of Hesh.

Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, roughly half of whom are refugees from other parts of the country.

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

The Assad regime, however, has consistently broken the terms of the ceasefire, 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 Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat