TRT World’s Yasin Eken in Kansafra in northwest Syria, March 7, 2020

The illusion of a Russian-Turkish ceasefire in northwest Syria was exposed on Friday by filming of pro-Assad bombardment of a town in southern Idlib Province.

Assad regime forces, supported by Russia, has been firing heavy artillery on the town of Kansafra and near the town of Al-Bara throughout this week.

A crew from Turkey’s TRT World was in Kansafra on Friday afternoon as the shells fell. Significantly, the reporter blamed Russia — Turkey’s supposed partner in the ceasefire declared on March 5 by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — as well as Damascus:

As you can see, the regime and the Russians are continuing to fire artillery on Kansafra. This artillery round fell just about 100 meters from us….

This is a place that the opposition continues to hold despite regime and Russian violations of the agreement.

Abu Muhammad, a commander of the anti-Assad National Liberation Front, tells TRT, “We…are going to remain here and will stop any attempts by the regime to advance in these areas.”

The ceasefire halted an 11-month Russia-regime offensive that seized almost all of northern Hama Province and part of southern Idlib. About 2,000 civilians were killed, thousands wounded, and more than 1 million displaced.

But pro-Assad shelling of southern Idlib has been persistent during the supposed halt of attacks, and anti-Assad forces have retaliated with attacks on regime checkpoints. Russia has bombed opposition territory, causing civilian casualties, on several occasions, amid protests against Turkish-Russian patrols along the cross-Idlib M4 highway.

Last week Moscow threatened a renewed offensive against “militants of terrorist groups”. Both pro-Assad and opposition social media accounts speculated about an assault on the Jabal al-Zawiya region, which includes Kansafra.

See Russia Threatens Renewed Offensive Against Northwest Syria