ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A top UN official condemned on Wednesday the Syrian regime’s recent shelling in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib province, which saw the deaths of at least eight civilians.

“Initial reports indicate at least eight civilians were killed by shelling, including four children and two local aid workers, while at least 13 others were injured,” reported Mark Cutts, Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis in a statement, which said multiple communities in the province’s district of Ariha were impacted by the attacks.

While the official’s statement did not name Bashar al-Assad’s regime as responsible for the most recent bout of violence in the country’s last rebel-stronghold, a UK-based war monitor reported the civilian deaths as caused by intense rocket attacks by regime forces.

Idlib is one of the rebel’s last bastions in the country. After months of intense fighting between the Turkey-backed jihadists and regime forces, accompanied by Russia, a ceasefire was brokered in March, which has reduced clashes, but tensions have escalated in recent weeks.

An airstrike killed at least 50 pro-Turkey rebel fighters in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib and wounded tens of others in late October, according to multiple sources. This is the deadliest attack on the jihadists this year.

Syria’s conflict has killed at least 380,000 people and displaced millions of others to other parts of the country or abroad. Of Idlib province’s three million people, over half are internally displaced people from other parts of Syria.

"Today's violence compounds an already dire situation on the ground in Idlib where millions of civilians remain in urgent need of life-saving assistance," added Cutts, who called for a halt to fighting and a return to the ceasefire. "COVID-19 continues to spread in the over-crowded camps, the rains have started again and the bitter winter temperatures will soon set in."

Rudaw