<p class="title">Airstrikes hit a part of northwest Syria for the first time since a ceasefire was declared 10 days ago, a war monitor and rebel group spokesman said on September 10.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Syrian government forces and their Russian allies unilaterally agreed on a truce on August 31 in opposition-controlled Idlib, where a "de-escalation zone" was brokered two years ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Since August 31, the intense airstrikes by Russian and Syrian warplanes that had accompanied a Syrian government push to re-take the area have stopped, although there has been ground fighting and shelling.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States said its forces had carried out strikes against an al-Qaeda facility in Idlib on the day the ceasefire came into effect.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, based in Britain, said planes had carried out two raids on in the strategic Jabal al-Akrad mountain range near the western Latakia coast.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It is not clear if these raids signal a return to the Russian and Syrian campaign of heavy airstrikes.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mohammad Rashid, the spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel faction, said the two raids, which he said had been carried out by Russian planes, were the first since the ceasefire began.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The truce was the second declared in August in Idlib, the only major swathe of the country still in rebel hands after more than eight years of war. A ceasefire in early August collapsed three days in, after which the Russian-backed army pressed its offensive and gained ground.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Idlib province houses millions of people who have fled war elsewhere in Syria. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since an offensive to take the area began in April.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The dominant force in Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance formerly known as the Nusra Front, which cut ties to al Qaeda in 2016. However, a wide array of factions, including Turkey-backed rebels, also have a presence.</p>
<p class="title">Airstrikes hit a part of northwest Syria for the first time since a ceasefire was declared 10 days ago, a war monitor and rebel group spokesman said on September 10.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Syrian government forces and their Russian allies unilaterally agreed on a truce on August 31 in opposition-controlled Idlib, where a "de-escalation zone" was brokered two years ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Since August 31, the intense airstrikes by Russian and Syrian warplanes that had accompanied a Syrian government push to re-take the area have stopped, although there has been ground fighting and shelling.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States said its forces had carried out strikes against an al-Qaeda facility in Idlib on the day the ceasefire came into effect.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, based in Britain, said planes had carried out two raids on in the strategic Jabal al-Akrad mountain range near the western Latakia coast.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It is not clear if these raids signal a return to the Russian and Syrian campaign of heavy airstrikes.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mohammad Rashid, the spokesman for the Jaish al-Nasr rebel faction, said the two raids, which he said had been carried out by Russian planes, were the first since the ceasefire began.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The truce was the second declared in August in Idlib, the only major swathe of the country still in rebel hands after more than eight years of war. A ceasefire in early August collapsed three days in, after which the Russian-backed army pressed its offensive and gained ground.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Idlib province houses millions of people who have fled war elsewhere in Syria. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since an offensive to take the area began in April.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The dominant force in Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance formerly known as the Nusra Front, which cut ties to al Qaeda in 2016. However, a wide array of factions, including Turkey-backed rebels, also have a presence.</p>