Regime attacks kill 300 this year: UN

Syrian government air strikes backed by Russia have hit hospitals and displaced persons camps in northwest Syria and killed about 300 civilians as President Bashar al-Assad's forces press an assault against the last rebel stronghold, the United Nations said on Feb. 18.

In a statement expressing "horror at the scale of the humanitarian crisis," Michelle Bachelet denounced direct hits on or near camps of displaced civilians, as well as on medical and education facilities, including two hospitals on Feb. 17. She has previously said such acts could be war crimes.

"Entire families, some who have fled from one corner of Syria to the other over the course of the past decade, are tragically finding that bombs are part of their everyday life," said Bachelet.

The U.N. Human Rights Office recorded 298 civilian deaths in Idlib and Aleppo, where the government offensive has been concentrated, since Jan. 1.

Her spokesman Rupert Colville, asked whether Syria and Russia were deliberately targeting civilians and buildings protected under international law, told a Geneva briefing: "The sheer quantity of attacks on hospitals, medical facilities, and schools would suggest they cannot all be accidental."

Bachelet's comments came a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad pledged to press ahead with a military campaign in the northwest. His troops have been making rapid advances against rebel-held areas, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for safer areas.

Assad congratulated his forces for the gains, vowing complete victory "sooner or later."

More than 900,000 people have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of December, according to the U.N. Those include some half a million children, according to Henrietta...