War monitor says air strikes target rebel-held areas in Syria's Idlib

Warplanes and helicopters targeted rebel-held areas of southern Idlib, Syria, on Tuesday, British-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), reported.

One of several villages hit was Tamanaa, SOHR said. Videos uploaded to social media are purported to show several air strikes hitting the village, causing explosions and large clouds of smoke.

The videos were uploaded to a Qasioun News Agency feed on a social media website, with captions below saying the air strikes were carried out by the Russian warplanes.

SOHR said no casualties had been reported, but civil defence group, known as the White Helmets, reported at least nine people had been killed as a result of Tuesday's raids both in southern Idlib and the northern part of neighbouring city of Hama.

The air strikes came as Syrian regime forces clashed with rebels, including Hayat Tahrir al Sham – the formerly known as Al Nusra Front – in the same area, the SOHR said.

The clashes, in the Tal al Aghar area, came as regime forces tried to advance, SOHR added.

Idlib notably falls within a network of four de-escalation zones endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

The air strikes have made many Syrians doubt whether peace talks in Astana and in Geneva will achieve anything. 

TRT World's Ahmed al Burai visits the city and spoke the residents.

Ultimatum by regime

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels pinned down in a strategic area where the Israeli and Lebanese borders meet with Syria were handed an ultimatum by the Syrian regime army and its Iranian-backed militia allies to either surrender or face certain military defeat, rebels said on Tuesday.

The Syrian regime army backed by local militias financed and equipped by Iran alongside Druze fighters from the area have been escalating a fierce assault against Sunni rebels in an enclave in the foothills of Mount Hermon, close to both the Israeli and Lebanese borders.

"They were given 72 hours to surrender with fighters to go to Idlib or those who want to stay have to reach a settlement," said Ibrahim al Jebawi, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) official familiar with the situation on the ground.

The rebels have now been left encircled in Beit Jin, their main stronghold after losing strategic hills and farms around it this week after over two months of near-daily shelling and aerial strikes.

The Syrian regime army has used similar tactics of pushing opponents to rebel areas further from the Syrian capital after a twin tactic of siege and months of strikes on residential areas.

There were also more than 8,000 civilians who have been trapped in the remaining enclaves with their plight worsening, according to rebel spokesman Sohaib Alraheel.

Evacuation from E Ghouta

Medical evacuations have begun from the Syrian rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta to Damascus, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria said on its Twitter account early on Wednesday, without giving details.

Almost 400,000 people in Eastern Ghouta are besieged by Syrian regime forces, and the United Nations has asked the regime to allow evacuation of around 500 patients who will die without urgent medical care.