Seven civilians, including four children from one family, have been killed in an air strike by Vladimir Putin's forces in northern Syria.
The attacks occurred on Friday night near the opposition-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, in the rebel enclave of Idlib, just days after Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Iran's capital to discuss the future of Syria.
On what was the deadliest day for the country in months, Russian warplanes, along with artillery shelling by Bashar al-Assad' s forces, rained bombs on the Idlib countryside and wounded around 20 civilians.
Two girls and two boys, who were between one and seven years old, lay dead on the hospital floor as their families wailed in anguish at the tragedy.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed that a Russian aircraft had conducted four strikes.
Munir al-Mustafa, the deputy director of the local first responder group White Helmets, told Al Jazeera that it took almost three hours to take the victims out from under the rubble, while the Russian planes were still circling in the sky.
“We were trying to find somewhere safe for our children and our families, but the third strike hit my home directly and killed my nephew, and injured three of my children,” Abdul Hayy, 36, told Al Jazeera.
Mr Hayy said the minutes it took to transfer them to the hospital felt like hours.
Ayhman Mozan, 31, lost all four of his children in the attack that happened when the family were sleeping, he told Agence France Presse.
“My children are gone … the dearest people to my heart are gone,” he told the French news agency.
The area has enjoyed relative calm recently after years of relentless bombardment and this is the first attack of its kind in months, as government forces advance in Maarat al-Naasan, in the east of Idlib.
Russia is a relentless bomb-wielding supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and when the Kremlin's forces entered the war in 2015, strikes mounted in frequency and intensity.
Russia has kept the Hmeimim air base on the Mediterranean Coast and has control of the skies over Idlib.
The bombing came as Turkey has warned it will carry out a 'military operation' against the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in the northwest of the country, despite opposition from the Syrian government, as well as Russia and Iran.
Some say the Russian strikes on Friday could have been a warning to Russia.
Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian war vary between 300,000 and about 610,000 as of March 2022.
