Air assaults have increased against rebel-held northwestern Syria, which is the last major stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents. The escalating war forced thousands of civilians to flee the town of Khan Sheikhoun, according to some war monitors on 26th Tuesday.

The area near the Turkish frontier is under a truce mediated last year by Assad’s main battlefield ally Russia, and Turkey, one of the main supporters of the rebels who have fought war in order to oust Assad from power for eight years.

Over hundreds of thousands of people who escaped to other parts of Syria have taken shelter in the enclave, covered by the truce which was aimed at deterring an all-out government attack. Any suggestion that the truce is under new pressure is being closely monitored by the conflicting parties and their allies.

Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, mentioned that government forces had heightened artillery shelling and air attacks, which have been increasing slowly over the past 10 days.

Khan Sheikhoun has become a ghost town. He even stated that the bombing focuses mainly on towns along the Damascus-Aleppo international road.

The ‘White Helmets’ rescue organization that works in opposition held areas of Syria stated five people were killed during shelling and air strikes on Tuesday, which includes three children.

According to a senior data analyst, which runs an early warning system for aerial bombardment known as Sentry, on Tuesday, 13 strikes had been noticed in Idlib and northern Hama. The analyst even stated that it is the third day in which a notable spike in air assaults has been noticed. The pace of assaults seems high and basically unusual in comparison to the last few months.

Syrian state media stated rebels had fired rockets at many towns in the northern part of Hama province, killing one civilian and injuring seven others in what it claims was a breach of the truce.

Under the pact orchestrated by Russia and Turkey, the territory in the northwest consists of a demilitarized zone that must be kept free of all kind of heavy ammunitions and jihadist fighters.