![d6bcc1b33071f9db90c5a56c62f6d158b862a924](https://utterbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/d6bcc1b33071f9db90c5a56c62f6d158b862a924-640x427.jpg)
Russian-backed regime forces seized several towns and villages in northwest Syria Thursday, as deadly air strikes hit the jihadist-held bastion, a monitor said. Seven civilians died in air strikes in the south of the stronghold, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, a day after regime air strikes killed 12 others — including six children — in a town. Eight years into Syria’s war, the Idlib region of some three million people is one of the last holdouts of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.