AMMAN: The Syrian army shot down on Thursday eight drones over the Hama and Aleppo countryside in northwestern Syria that had killed three Syrians and injured two others, state media said, only hours after the opposition and rescuers accused the army of its own deadly attacks on rebel-held Idlib city. The army said several villages in rural Hama had come under attack from drones flying from Idlib city. At least four civilians were killed in Idlib earlier from rockets fired by the Syrian army, rebel sources said. The Syrian army has blamed rebels, who it says are Islamist jihadists, for attacks on government-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces and denies indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in areas under rebel control. In a statement, the army said it conducted with Russian air forces a series of strikes against hideouts, training bases and ammunition depots belonging to Islamist militant Hayat Tahrir al Sham group, killing and injuring scores of their fighters and also some military commanders. “A large number of terrorists were killed in targeted strikes conducted with Russian forces,” the Syrian ministry of defense said in a statement. Rescuers and residents say the Syrian government backed by Russian jets have intensified in the last three weeks their bombardment of Syria’s northwest rebel-held enclave. Opposition officials say both Moscow and Damascus are taking advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the Gaza conflict to escalate pounding of a region where over three million inhabitants refuse to live under the authoritarian rule of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The area is the last opposition bastion under control of mainstream Turkiye-backed armed factions and Hayat Tahrir al Sham group. At least five civilians were killed during a Russian strike on Tuesday that hit a camp for displaced Syrians in rebel-held Saraqeb, residents and rescuers said. Opposition sources say at least 60 civilians have been killed in the bombing by the Syrian army and its Russian ally of rebel-held villages and towns since the start of the month. Thousands have fled the bombing campaign to safer areas along the border with Turkiye.