Bombardment in northwest Syria kills 9 civilians — monitor

BEIRUT — Bombardment on Sunday killed 9 civilians in north-western Syria where ramped up attacks claimed hundreds of lives since April, a war monitor said.

Idlib and parts of the neighbouring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are under the control of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a  group led by Syria's former Al Qaeda affiliate. 

The region is supposed to be protected from a massive offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but it has come under increasing fire over the past three months.

Air strikes on Sunday killed five civilians in the Idlib town of Ariha, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Air raids, meanwhile, killed two civilians in northern Hama, according to the Britain-based monitor. 

Shelling and air strikes by the regime also killed two other civilians elsewhere in the northwest, it added.

Some 3 million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country, live in the Idlib region. 

Attacks have claimed more than 740 lives there since late April, according to the war monitor.

The UN says more than 400,000 people have been displaced. 

The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.