IDLIB, Syria

At least one civilian was killed and five were wounded in the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, the White Helmets civil defense group said on Sunday. 

The Bashar al-Assad regime struck the Khan Shaykhun district in Idlib’s de-escalation zone, Kafr Zita in northern rural Hama, and nearby districts with mortars and cannons.

A civilian woman was killed in Bidama in rural western Idlib, and five others were killed following the attack.

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

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

The de-escalation zone is currently inhabited by about 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced by regime forces from their cities and towns throughout the war-weary country in recent years.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas