At least eleven civilians were killed Monday in Russian air strikes in northwestern Syria, where Syrian regime forces entered a strategic city just days after it was recaptured by insurgents, according to an NGO. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) has reported the death of nine civilians in airstrikes of the Russian Federation, a regime ally, on the village of Fouaa, in the province of Idlib and two other civilians in similar raids on the village of Adouane, also located in the last great bastion of rebels and jihadists escaping Damascus.
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According to the OSDH, the fighting on the ground continued, moreover, in the evening around the key city of Saraqeb - taken over by the insurgents on February 27 - between the forces of the regime which entered there Monday and fighters of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Cham, who dominates the Idleb region. Russian army units have deployed to the outskirts of the city and at least 21 rebels and jihadists and 11 pre-regime fighters have died in the fighting, the observatory said. Turkish drones also targeted Syrian military vehicles, said the OSDH, without providing further details.
With Ankara's support, the insurgents had succeeded in recapturing Saraqeb, which fell on February 8 in Damascus, as part of a major offensive to retake the Idleb region. This city is located at the junction of two key highways: the M5 which connects the capital Damascus to the big city of Aleppo (north) and the M4, which connects Aleppo to the coastal province of Latakia, another bastion of the regime.
According to the OSDH, Damascus deployed reinforcements on the outskirts of the city on Sunday evening, rallied by fighters from Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite movement allied with the regime, and succeeded "under Russian air cover" to "regain total control of Saraqeb" . The Syrian official agency Sana said on Monday that the Syrian army had entered the city after heavy fighting against the Turkish-backed rebels. In a statement, the Russian army announced that its military police units had entered Saraqeb on Monday to "guarantee the security and the free movement of transport and civilians on the M4 and M5 motorways" .
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Rebel groups have denied any complete takeover of the city by regime forces and their allies. "Assad's forces have launched an attack on Saraqeb and very violent clashes continue inside" the city, Naji Moustafa, spokesperson for the National Liberation Front (FNL), coalition told AFP rebel supported by Turkey.
The fierce fighting between the two camps led to an unprecedented fever fever between Damascus and Ankara. On Sunday, Turkey announced that it would launch an offensive against the regime in the Idle region, shooting down two of its planes and inflicting heavy losses on its troops. According to the OSDH, 93 regime soldiers have been killed in Turkish bombing since Friday, as have 10 Hezbollah fighters and four other pro-Tehran militiamen.
Bashar al-Assad's regime said Monday it was determined to repel the Turkish offensive. With the help of Moscow, Damascus has been carrying out a major offensive against the Idleb region since December and has been able to recapture half of the province, according to the OSDH. The offensive displaced nearly a million civilians according to the UN, and killed more than 470 civilians, according to the OSDH.
Triggered in 2011, the war in Syria killed more than 380,000 people.
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