Syrian government forces deliberately shot elderly civilians in the rebel-held north-west and sought out Turkish military posts for attack in direct violation of a ceasefire deal, intercepted radio communications shared with The Telegraph reveal.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime is regularly accused of targeting non-combatants in the nine-year war, but there is rarely evidence to prove the attacks are premeditated.

The recordings reveal how soldiers from the Syrian army's 25th Division, a notorious elite special mission force known as the Tiger Forces, opened fire on what they identified to be a group of old women.

In the recordings, they track the women in a car that stops outside a house near Kafr Halab in western Aleppo on Feb 11. The women are seen collecting clothes and other belongings as they prepare to flee a regime advance.

It appears one of the soldiers expresses discomfort at shooting the unarmed women. "She looks elderly," one tells the others. "It’s clear she’s coming to pack her belongings, then she’s leaving."

Another replies: "I am watching them, they are about to enter a house. Yallah (Go)! I am firing now," before rapid machine-gun fire can be heard. "Fire, fire, I am observing for you," his officer says.

Local reports corresponding with the date and time of the radio communications indicate the women were killed in the attack.

Deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime under international law.

The communications were intercepted after the army's radio frequency was discovered by spotters at a nearby observatory. They were then passed to The Telegraph by independent activist group Macro Media Centre (MMC).

Last month, this paper published leaked recordings from the same group, see below, revealing the presence of Iranian and Afghan militias fighting with slain Qassim Soleimani’s Quds Force alongside the regime in northern Syria.