Maaret al-Numan

Some 21,000 civilians have fled Syria's northwestern region of Idlib to places near the Turkish border in the last 24 hours, amid heightened bombardments by the Syrian regime and Russia, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 27.

Clashes between Syrian regime forces and armed groups in the country's last major opposition bastion have killed more than 60 on both sides in the past 24 hours despite United Nations calls for de-escalation, a war monitoring group said on Dec. 20.

Syrian opposition leaders started leaving Geneva after air strikes on markets in the northwest killed at least 44 people, saying they could not take part in peace talks while civilians were dying daily.