Pro-Damascus fighters conduct deadly strike on Syria clinic

Regime and allied forces have ratcheted up their attacks in parts of the Idlib region

The Syrian White Helmets carry away an injured man. AFP

Civlians and a member of the Syrian White Helmets help a woman following a Russian air strike on Maaret Al Numan in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. AFP

The air strikes were believed to have been carried out by Syrian or Russian jets. AFP

Busy marketplaces and residential areas have been a frequent target of the campaign waged by Russia and Syria since the end of April. AFP

Syrian civilians flee an area targeted by a Russian air strike on Maaret Al Numan. AFP

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths increased the number of civilians killed by Syrian government or Russian bombardments in the north-west to 682 since late April. AFP

Syrian White Helmets search for victims from under the rubble. AP

Shelling by regime fighters on a medical centre in north-western Syria killed a woman on Wednesday, the latest in a long list of government attacks on health facilities.

The predawn shelling in Marayan hit a building housing one of the few health centres in this part of Idlib province, AFP cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.

A witness saw men salvaging medical equipment from the damaged two-storey building on the ground floor, where the health centre was located.

The wife of the centre's director, who lived on the destroyed first floor of the same building, was killed by the shelling, the Observatory said.

In recent days, regime and allied forces have ratcheted up their attacks on parts of the Idlib region still controlled by rebel groups.

Four civilians, including a young woman and a child, were killed on Tuesday in rare artillery fire in the provincial capital of Idlib, the UK-based war monitor said.

The Idlib region, which is home to about three million people and borders Turkey, is the last pocket to oppose Damascus in the decade-old conflict.

After a months-long military offensive to flush out the enclave sparked fears of the war's worst bloodshed yet, a ceasefire deal was reached in March 2020.

The agreement brokered by the regime's and the rebels' main backers — Russia and Turkey respectively — has largely held since then, despite sporadic flare-ups such as those seen this week.