By Ashraf Musa

IDLIB, Syria (AA): At least five civilians were killed in attacks by Syrian Government forces and allied militias in Syria’s northern Idlib province, according to the controversial White Helmets civil defense agency on Saturday. Meanwhile, twenty civilians, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes carried out by US-led coalition in the town of Hajin situated in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Syrian Government forces and Iran-backed militias attacked residential buildings and schools in the town of Jarjanazin in the province’s eastern countryside, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter in the area.

“The attacks took place as students were leaving schools,” White Helmets official Mustafa Haj Yousuf told Anadolu Agency.

“Two students and three women were killed in the attacks,” he said.

Nine children and eight women were among the 29 civilians killed in Hajin after US-led airstrike which targeted a local market on Saturday, according to Syrian official news agency, SANA.

SANA also reported that last week the coalition killed at least 40 people after its warplanes struck the village of al-Buqa’an on the outskirts of Hajin.

On November 15, local reports claimed coalition warplanes had killed 23 civilians, including 17 people of the same family, after firing missiles at buildings in the village of Albu Badran.

At least 32 civilians are estimated to have been killed and scores injured in similar attacks by Syrian Government forces and allied militias in Idlib since mid-September.

After a meeting in Sochi between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sept. 17, the two sides agreed to set up a demilitarized zone — in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited — in Idlib.

Under the terms of the deal, opposition groups in Idlib will remain in areas in which they are already present, while Russia and Turkey will carry out joint patrols in the area to prevent a resumption of fighting.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

Additional report from Agencies

[Photo: Damaged buildings seen after Syrian Govt airstrike despite in Jarjanaz village of Syria’s northwestern Idlib, on November 24, 2018. Photographer: Khateb Alidlbe/AA]