Syrian activists said Russian warplanes carried out early Wednesday the first airstrikes in three months on the last remaining opposition stronghold in northwestern Syria.
The strikes on and near Idlib province were the first to be conducted by Russian planes since a truce brought relative calm to the area in early March, they added. No causalities were reported.
The truce, brokered by Turkey and Russia, brought an end to a fatal three-month air and ground campaign that had killed hundreds and displaced one million people who fled toward the Turkish border.
Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces while Turkey supports the opposition. In recent years, Moscow and Ankara have become the main power-brokers in Syria, shattered by a civil war since 2011, the Associated Press reported.
Opposition activists said that in recent days, both Turkey and the government in Damascus have been sending reinforcements to northwestern Syria. There have also been repeated violations of the truce on the ground in recent weeks.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said Russian warplanes targeted rebel-held areas just south of Idlib province late Tuesday and Wednesday morning. It had no immediate word on casualties in the four airstrikes.
