Airstrikes hit last bastion of Syrian rebels as final showdown looms
2018-09-05 10:19:33 source：The Washington Post
September 4, 2018
BEIRUT -- Russian warplanes in Syria bombed the country’s final rebel stronghold Tuesday, a monitoring group said, ending a weeks-long period of uneasy calm there and raising fears that an all-out offensive would follow.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded nine deaths and more than 45 strikes around the northern city of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province. In photographs from the area, plumes of dust and smoke could be seen rising from the edge of a residential district.
After seven years of war, the northern province has become the rebels’ final bastion. With Turkey’s border sealed to the north, it also has become a holding pen for about 2 million displaced civilians, among them activists and aid workers who fear arrest if they return to life under President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
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