White Helmets rescuers treat a victim of Russian airstrikes on Idlib Province in northwest Syria, June 25, 2023

Russian airstrikes on opposition-held Idlib Province in northwest Syria killed at least nine civilians and wounded 61 on Sunday.

Russia Sukhoi warplanes dropped bombs on a crowded vegetable market in the city of Jisr al-Shughour. They also attacked villages in mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region and the western outskirts of Idlib city.

At the same time, Assad regime forces shelled areas west of Aleppo city.

The casualties included dozens of cats and kittens killed and wounded in a sanctuary.

The Russians also attacked on Saturday near Jisr al-Shughour.

More than 4 million people, many of them displaced from other areas of Syria, live in the opposition parts of Idlib and Aleppo Provinces.

Russia ground and air operations since 2015 have enabled the Assad regime to regain part of northwest Syria, including the city of Aleppo, the largest in the country.

A ceasefire agreement in March 2020 between Russia and Turkey, which supports anti-Assad groups in the northwest, ended an 11-month Russia-Assad offensive that seized all of northern Hama Province and part of neighboring Idlib.

However, Russia has continued periodic airstrikes, including on civilian sites.

The regime claimed that the anti-Assad faction Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls much of Idlib, was behind a drone strike on Friday on Qardaha in western Syria. The city is close to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Latakia Province.

Regime media proclaimed Sunday that Russian and regime warplanes “destroyed terrorist headquarters, depots, and drone launching sites”, killing “tens of terrorists” and injuring others.