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Two days of clashes between regime forces and armed groups in Syrias last major opposition bastion have killed nearly 70 on both sides, undermining a months-long ceasefire agreement, a war monitor said Sunday.
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The battles in the northwestern province of Idlib are “the most violent” there since a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement went into effect in late August, said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Residents of affected villages fled north to escape the fighting, adding to the hundreds of thousands who have already flooded out of the provinces violence-plagued south since fighting escalated earlier this year.
“I dont want to see my children trapped under rubble,” said one of those driven from his home, Hafez, who escaped the flashpoint area along with his wife and three kids two days earlier.
On Sunday morning, clouds of smoke rose over the Maaret al-Numan region as warplanes pounded jihadists and allied rebels in positions they had recently recaptured from regime forces, said an AFP correspondent.
The Britain-based Observatory on Sunday put the death toll from fighting at 69 combatants since battles started the previous day.
At least 36 in the regime forces were among those killed.
Cease-fire
The Observatory said an attack led by Syrias former al-Qaeda affiliate on several regime positions had initially sparked the fighting.
Overnight, the Syrian army backed by Russian warplanes launched a counter-push to reclaim territory it had lost in the battles, the war monitor said.
Regime forces have since regained lost ground but violent clashes are ongoing, the Observatory and an AFP correspondent said.
Air strikes on Sunday afternoon hit jihadist-run areas dozens of kilometres away from the main frontline, signalling a potential escalation, the correspondent said.
The Idlib region, home to around three million people including many displaced by Syrias eight-year civil war, is controlled by the countrys former al Qaeda affiliate.
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