Over 500 civilians killed in Russian offensive in Syria

Syrian human rights group accuses Russian, Syrian forces of deliberately targeting civilians in attacks on rebel-held Idlib.

Gary Willig,

Fighting in Syria
Fighting in Syria
Flash 90

At least 544 civilians were killed and over 2,000 wounded in Russian airstrikes on the last revel stronghold in northwestern Syria over the last two months, human rights organizations reported.

Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military have bombarded the rebel-held Idlib province since late April in the largest offensive in the Syrian civil war since summer 2018.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the dead include 130 children.

SNHR chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany told Reuters that the Russian and Syrian militaries were "deliberately targeting civilians with a record number of medical facilities bombed.”

Russia and the Assad regime have denied that they have deliberately targeted civilians or indiscriminately attacked civilian areas with cluster bombs and incendiary weapons.

Over 560,000 people have been killed in the civil war since March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 5.7 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees, according to UN figures, and an additional 6.1 million Syrians have been internally displaced.