Bombardment by the Syrian regime and ally Russia killed 16 civilians including seven children in the country’s northwest Wednesday, a monitor said, as Damascus presses an offensive against the jihadist-run bastion Idlib. Among those, six children and six adults lost their lives in regime air strikes on residential neighbourhoods in the town of Maaret al-Noman, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The town lies on a key supply route running through the Idlib province that analysts say is in the sights of the regime.

Eight years into Syria’s civil war, the Idlib region is one of the last major bastions of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Since the start of the month, regime forces have started chipping away at its southern edges following months of devastating bombardment.