Five people have been killed in airstrikes on a town in Syria’s northwest as the regime keeps up its deadly air campaign against the opposition-controlled region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two of the five civilians killed on Sunday were members of the same family.
The opposition-affiliated first responders known as the White Helmets said 21 people were wounded in the town of Ariha.
Activists said an airstrike hit a busy market there a day earlier, killing 11 people.
The town has been particularly targeted over the past week, as the regime looks to regain momentum in its stalled offensive against Idlib province, which began in late April.
Meanwhile, Syrian aid workers, diplomats and residents said that the population of Rukban camp in a US-protected desert zone in southeast Syria has dwindled to a quarter of the more than 40,000 who lived there five months ago due to Russian moves to block supplies.
The camps inhabitants, most of whom fled from Russian air strikes when Moscow pounded towns in eastern Homs desert several years ago, say growing hunger and poverty as a result of the blocking of food supplies had forced most to leave.
"The situation is very, very bad and food supplies are not available," said Mahmoud al Humeili, a prominent local figure in the camp who fled Homs.
"Thousands of internally displaced persons have now fled Rukban out of desperation, taking the risk of arrest by regime forces," reported Etana, a leading Syrian policy research group based in Amman that gathers information from civil and military sources.
The group estimated that, as of July 23, there were about 11,000 people in the camp, compared to a UN estimate of 41,000 in February.
