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REUTERS
AMMAN
Russian and Syrian jets escalated strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Hama provinces, several days after jihadist rebels opened an offensive against government-held parts of northwestern Syria, rebels and witnesses said on Sunday.
The bombing campaign in heavily populated civilian areas shattered six months of relative calm. Russian-inspired ceasefires had given a temporary reprieve to tens of thousands of people living in rebel-held northwestern Syria.
But now thousands of civilians who had been returning to their homes have headed back to the relative safety of refugee camps along the Turkish border, which are protected under Russian-Turkish understandings, residents said.
"People are very afraid things have gone back to what they were and returned back to camps - there is no longer any hope," Ahmad Thaib, a resident of Jabal al Zawya.
The strikes were retaliation for last Tuesday's assault against Hama province, which were spearheaded by Tahrir al-Sham, the jihadist Turkistan Islamic Party and rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
The bombing campaign also comes shortly after a tripartite deal struck by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to deploy an observer force in Idlib, a province where the former al Qaeda's Syrian offshoot has cemented its control after it crushed opponents.
