\n More than 400,000 people have been displaced in northwestern Syria over the past three months, the UN said Friday, as the government presses an intensified bombardment of the opposition-held region.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned \"international indifference\" in the face of the mounting death toll in government air strikes on the region's schools, hospitals, markets and bakeries.\n<\/p>\n
\n The jihadist-dominated Idlib region is supposed to be protected by a months-old international truce deal, but has faced growing bombardment by the government and its ally Russia since late April.\n<\/p>\n
\n The spike in violence has killed more than 740 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.\n<\/p>\n
\n Aid groups have described the latest bloody episode of Syria's eight-year civil war as a \"nightmare\".\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 400,000 people have fled violence in the area since the end of April, said David Swanson of the United Nations' humanitarian coordination office OCHA.\n<\/p>\n
\n He spoke to AFP as regime air raids pummelled a market in the Idlib province town of Saraqib, the second attack on the same market this week, according to the Observatory.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Britain-based monitor said one civilian was killed and several others were wounded there on Friday, four days after a similar attack killed more than seven.\n<\/p>\n
\n It said two other civilians were killed and 20 others were wounded in regime attacks elsewhere in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n An AFP photographer in Saraqib saw broken styrofoam crates, fruits and vegetables scattered on the dusty concrete floor near wrecked vegetable trucks.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The al-Hal market is one of the main commercial hubs of the town,\" Layth al-Abdullah, a rescue worker in the town, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the regime had shown \"barbarity... in its killing of civilians and the destruction of their property.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - Displacement -\n<\/p>\n
\n Bachelet warned of continued regime attacks against schools, hospitals, markets and bakeries in the Idlib region.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident,\" she said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The region under attack is home to some three million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n It covers nearly all of Idlib and parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.\n<\/p>\n
\n Most of the displacement is from southern Idlib and northern Hama, the two areas that have been hit hardest by the flare-up, OCHA said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The majority of those fleeing have displaced within Idlib governorate while a smaller number have moved into northern Aleppo governorate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Roughly two-thirds of people displaced are staying outside camps,\" it said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Approximately 100 schools in Idlib are now hosting displaced people, OCHA said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many are forced to live in the open air because of overcrowding in camps and reception centres, it added.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Schools and hospitals -\n<\/p>\n
\n The Idlib region is controlled by jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.\n<\/p>\n
\n A September accord struck between Moscow and Ankara was supposed to spare the region the bloodshed of a government assault, but it was never fully implemented as jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned buffer zone.\n<\/p>\n
\n Instead, pro-government forces have since increased the intensity of their bombardment in recent weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Air strikes by the government and its Russian ally killed 12 civilians in the region on Thursday, according to the Observatory.\n<\/p>\n
\n Another 50 civilians were killed in strikes on Monday alone -- the majority on a busy market, the monitor said.\n<\/p>\n
\n OCHA described Monday as one of the \"deadliest days\" in the region since the start of the flare-up.\n<\/p>\n
\n It said that since the end of April it had documented 39 attacks against health facilities or medical workers in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n At least 50 schools have been damaged by the air strikes and shelling, it added.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 400,000 people have been displaced in northwestern Syria over the past three months, the UN said Friday, as the government presses an intensified bombardment of the opposition-held region. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned \"international indifference\" in the face of the mounting death toll in government air strikes on the region's schools, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-42029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n