'Cluster Munitions, Incendiary Weapons'

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Russian-Syrian joint military operation had used cluster munitions and incendiary weapons in the attacks along with large air-dropped explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated civilian areas, based on reports by first responders and witnesses.

The Idlib-based Civil Defense spokesman Ahmad al Sheikho said that "whole villages and towns have been emptied" in the offensive.

SNHR and witnesses said that 15 people, including children, were killed on July 5 in the village of Mhambil in western Idlib after Syrian Army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on a civilian quarter.

Moscow and Damascus have denied that their jets target civilian areas with cluster munitions and incendiary weapons.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said all military activities are in response "to provocations from terrorists."

UN chief Antonio Guterres last month called on Russia and Turkey to stabilize Syria’s Idlib Province, which he said was suffering "a humanitarian disaster."

Russia, Syria’s main ally, and Turkey, which has backed anti-government rebels in the eight-year civil war, last year co-sponsored a de-escalation agreement for the area in northwest Syria.

But the deal has failed to hold, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee Idlib, where the last remaining antigovernment rebels are holding out against a Syrian government military offensive.

With reporting by Reuters, The Daily Sabah, and TRT World