At least six people were killed and 12 others injured in airstrikes in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on Saturday, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency.

The attacks targeted the villages of El-Nukayyer and Oreynibe in Idlib’s Khan Sheikhoun town, which continued from Friday night into Saturday, Mustafa Haj Yusuf, the local director of the White Helmets in Idlib, said.

He said many children and women were among those injured in the attacks.

It remains unclear who had carried out the airstrikes, but a pro-opposition aircraft observatory said the attacks were carried out by Russian warplanes that took off from Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province.

A total of 652 people --including 149 and children 121 women-- were killed and 4,291 others injured in airstrikes since the beginning of this year, according to Idlib Civil Defense Directorate figures.

Located in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Idlib was declared a "de-escalation zone" last year, in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.

UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

AA