ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian regime warplanes are increasingly hovering in the sky over Idlib in northern Syria and targeting several residential areas inside the city.

Idlib is full of civilians, most of whom are from elsewhere in Idlib province, while others were displaced from various Syrian cities and villages. On March 20, regime warplanes targeted the city of Jisr al-Shughour in the western countryside of Idlib, killing eight people and injuring others while destroying several buildings. The warplanes also launched on the same day several air raids on the towns of Tarmanin and Ram Hamdan and the village of al-Dana in the northern countryside of Idlib, causing substantial material damage but no injuries.

On March 19, pro-regime warplanes targeted the Idlib center for the displaced (a school) and the Arbaeen Street district in the center of Idlib city, killing five people (three children and two women) and wounding 15 others, mostly women and children.

The latest regime air force escalation in Idlib province has given the civilians living there serious cause for concern. Idlib province is the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who either hail from elsewhere in the province or were displaced from Syrian cities and villages that had been besieged by the regime forces until the Syrian opposition forces and the Syrian regime forces agreed to evacuate those areas and allow the people of those areas to head north toward Idlib province. This happened in the city of Aleppo in late December and at Wadi al-Bardi, in the Damascus countryside, on Jan. 31.