A boy is treated in a field hospital for injuries from Assad regime bombing near Idlib city in northwest Syria, November 6, 2022

The Assad regime has killed at least nine civilians in aerial attacks on displaced persons’ camps near Idlib city in northwest Syria.

Three children and a woman are among the victims. More than 70 people were wounded and rushed to field hospitals.

Witnesses and rescuers said Russian-made jets, flying at high altitude and aided by Assad regime artillery, dropped bombs on the makeshift camps in forests west of the city.

White Helmets rescuer Seraj Ibrahim said, “There are no military bases or warehouses or rebel barracks here. Only civilians.”

Russian State media tried to cover up the mass killing with the claim that regime air forces struck a drones facility and a militant training camp. On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry put out disinformation that anti-Assad groups were plotting a drone attack on Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in western Syria.

More than 4 million Syrians — about 20% of the country’s population before the uprising of March 2011 — live in opposition-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo Provinces.

An agreement between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 ended an 11-month Russian-regime offensive that seized all of Hama Provinces and much of neighboring Idlib.

However, Russian and the Assad regime have periodically attacked civilian sites as well as targeting anti-Assad fighters.