Suicide attack kills 7 in Syria’s Idlib: White Helmets

By Burak Karacaoglu and Esref Musa</p> <p>IDLIB, Syria (AA) – At least seven people were killed in a suicide attack in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, the White Helmets civil-defense agency said Friday. </p> <p>Dozens of others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a restaurant on Friday evening, Mustafa Haj Yousuf, the White Helmets’ director in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency. </p> <p>No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. </p> <p>Located near the Turkish border, Idlib was designated a “de-escalation zone” — in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden — in May of last year. </p> <p>Continued regime attacks in the Idlib de-escalation zone are estimated to have left at least 94 civilians dead, and more than 290 others injured, since Jan. 1. </p> <p>The attacks have led to a fresh refugee exodus from Idlib’s cities of Khan Shaykhun and Maaret al-Numan. </p> <p>Since February, nearly 6,900 families have migrated to safe areas and camps near the Turkish border. </p> <p>Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.