At least 18 civilians have been killed by the Russian and Syrian regime bombardment of the rebel-held town of Atarib in western Aleppo countryside and several surrounding areas since last night.  

Among the victims was a woman killed in the town of Ibbin, and another 15 were wounded, the al-Atareb Media Center reported on Monday, 10 February.

 It added that a further 17 civilians were killed, and more than 30 others were injured yesterday, 9 February as a result of the Russian and Syrian regime bombardment on the towns and villages of Kafr Nouran, al-Sheik Ali, Urum al-Sughra and Atarib through last night.

The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence (SCD) posted a video showing the bombing attack on the towns of Kafr Nouran and Atarib.

Atarib is considered the second area under the control of Turkey-backed Syrian National Army SNA after the city of al-Bab. Furthermore, Atarib is supposed to be part of a “de-escalation zone” under a deal signed between Russia and Turkey in 2018, aimed at putting a prompt end to violence and reducing the suffering of people in the area. Nevertheless, the Syrian regime and its ally Russian are bombing the region amid Turkish military movements in the province of Idlib.

January’s regime bombardment killed more than 59 civilians, including 28 children, and wounded 158 others, including 63 women and children, in rural Aleppo, which is under the control of the opposition factions.

The SCD in the province of Aleppo published on Facebook on 8 Saturday that the Russian and al-Assad regime warplanes targeted the northern, southern and eastern rural areas of Aleppo, with more than 2000 airstrikes during last January.

There were two massacres reported in the countryside of Aleppo in the past month. The first massacre was perpetrated by the Syrian regime government and its ally Russia in the village of Kafr Taal in the western part of rural Aleppo, in which nine civilians were killed, including five children. The second one was committed in the village of Kafr Nouran in the south-western countryside of Aleppo, which resulted in the death of ten people and the injury of ten others.

Moreover, the Russian Armed Forces committed a massacre by bombing nine members of the same family, including four children and three women, in the al-Rahal Association in the western countryside of Aleppo. The family members were preparing to flee with their car, the escalating violence in the countryside of the west of Aleppo to the border areas with Turkey in northern Syria.

Despite the “ceasefire agreement” signed between Russia and Turkey on 12 January, the escalation continues in the western countryside of Aleppo; the Syrian regime forces have conducted a military battle to make a ground advance in the area, in parallel with another assault in rural Idlib since mid-January.

The Syrian regime forces took control of strategic areas, the last of which was Tell al-Issa, which sits on the international highway, Damascus-Aleppo.