BEIRUT — Intense airstrikes overnight Tuesday in rebel-held areas of northern Syria killed or wounded scores of people, most of them civilians, as Syria’s already fraying peace process wobbled on the verge of collapse.
Aid agencies and human rights monitors said as many as 50 people died when warplanes repeatedly struck buildings around the National Hospital in the provincial capital of Idlib. They said Russian warplanes were responsible, although that could not be independently confirmed.
The attack on Idlib followed hundreds of airstrikes over the weekend in and around the city of Aleppo. Activists said those attacks also were carried out by Russian as well as Syrian government warplanes.
The strikes are presenting a major challenge to a three-month-old cessation of hostilities negotiated between Russia and United States, a truce that was reimposed last month after a previous near-collapse. The partial cease-fire was aimed primarily at reducing attacks on civilian areas, creating space for the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged communities and building trust at peace negotiations in Geneva.
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