You're reading: Deutsche Welle: Syria’s Idlib – UN warns of chemical weapons, jihadis and humanitarian catastrophe

Deutsche Welle: Syria’s Idlib – UN warns of chemical weapons, jihadis and humanitarian catastrophe

By Deutsche Welle.

Published Aug. 30, 2018 at 8:57 pm

Syrians gather amidst destruction in Zardana, in the mostly rebel-held northern Syrian Idlib province, in the aftermath of following air strikes in the area late on June 8, 2018.Air strikes in northwestern Syria, thought to have been carried out by regime ally Russia, killed 38 civilians including four children, a Britain-based monitor said. The raids, which hit a residential zone in the area of Zardana in the northwestern province of Idlib, also wounded 50 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Photo by AFP

The United Nations on August 30 warned 3 million civilians are at risk in Syria’s Idlib province as the government is expected to launch an offensive against the last rebel-held territory.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said that there were at least 10,000 terrorist fighters belonging to al-Nusra and al-Qaeda in Idlib province, about 60 percent of which is controlled by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham alliance.