Five children and three women are among those killed on Quneitra’s border with Daraa province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The war monitor says it’s unclear whether the strikes were carried by the regime or its Russian ally.
Air strikes on Tuesday killed more than a dozen civilians in parts of Syria’s south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a war monitor said.
The Syrian regime has been pounding the southwestern province of Quneitra since Sunday in a bid to retake it from rebels, after winning back most of the neighbouring province of Daraa in less than a month.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (or SOHR) said air strikes killed 14 civilians in the village of Ain al Tina on Quneitra’s border with Daraa on Tuesday morning.
“They were all displaced from other areas. They included five children and three women,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
It was not immediately clear whether the strikes were carried out by the regime or its Russian ally, the Britain-based monitor said.
The civilians had reportedly been taking shelter in a large building in Ain al Tina.
In the west of the adjacent province of Daraa, Russian air raids also killed one civilian near the village of Al Aliya, the Observatory said.
“Since Tuesday morning, heavy Russian air strikes and barrel bombs dropped by the regime have been targeting an area straddling Quneitra and Daraa,” Abdel Rahman said.
The monitor determines who carried out strikes based on the type of aircraft and munitions used, locations and flight patterns.
Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a group led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate, is present in that area, he said.
HTS militants are not included in a ceasefire between regime and rebels in Daraa announced earlier this month, which has allowed the regime to retake control of more than 90 percent of the province.
