Rocket fire by the Syrian regime early Sunday killed six civilians, including two children, at makeshift camps for displaced people in the country’s last major rebel stronghold, a war observer said.

The victims were all forced from their homes during the years of war in Syria, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a wide network of sources on the ground.

More than 30 rockets were said to have exploded in several areas, including camps west of the city of Idlib in north-west Syria.

The observatory said the number of people injured by the shelling rose from 20 to 75 and they were in varying conditions.

Shelling was said to have continued in several places in the region after rebels hit government targets in retaliation for the strikes.

An AFP correspondent saw shattered and burned fragile tents, bloodstains and rocket debris at the scene.

At a nearby hospital, the correspondent saw the bodies of two young girls.

Abu Hamid, a resident of the camp, told AFP: “We woke up this morning and were just getting ready for work when we started hearing the sounds of the strike.”

“The children were scared and started screaming,” the 67-year-old continued.

“We didn’t know where to go. It wasn’t one or two rockets, but a dozen. The shrapnel flew from all directions. We didn’t know how to protect ourselves.”

The last armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime covers large parts of Idlib province and parts of the neighboring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by ex-members of Syria’s former Al Qaeda franchise, is the dominant group in the region, but other rebel groups are also active.

According to the Observatory, the rocket fire came the day after five members of the Syrian Armed Forces died under fire from a group linked to HTS.

Around three million people live in the Idlib region, around half of them refugees.

They are among the millions displaced at home and abroad by the war in Syria since 2011. Almost half a million people were killed.

With Russian and Iranian support, Damascus reclaimed much of the ground lost in the early stages of the Syrian conflict that erupted in 2011 when the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests.

Despite regular clashes, a ceasefire reached in 2020 by Moscow and Turkey — which backs anti-Assad rebels — has largely held in the northwest.