This week Russian and Assad forces have initiated a campaign of terror against the Syrian people across the liberated territories. Monday and Tuesday saw attacks on a school, mosque, and homes in Idlib and Aleppo which killed a school girl and injured six other civilians, including three girls (one of them an infant), two women, and a man. Wednesday evening Assad regime forces fired an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) on the house of a family in Aleppo, killing all six members of the family. Attacks intensified Thursday afternoon following an alleged attack on an Assad regime military college by an unknown drone.
According to preliminary statistics from the Syrian Civil Defense also known as the White Helmets, based on their own fieldwork Thursday’s attacks killed 13 civilians, including three women and two children, and injured a staggering 62 civilians, including 18 children and 13 women.
The attacks via Russian airstrikes, heavy artillery, rockets, and mortar fire have been ongoing since Monday and continued until Friday evening where, the White Helmets have reported an additional seven deaths, including two children and a woman, and over 52 injuries including 19 children and 12 women. Heavy attacks are ongoing throughout the cities and villages of the liberated north.
This week cities and towns in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Latakia have been attacked, prominent among them: Bdama, Jisr al-Shughur, Majadliya, Idlib City, Sarmin, Afes, Nairab, Binnish, Ariha, Shaikh Sindyan, Bisabet, Sirmaniya, Halouz, Kinneda, Jiftlik Haj Hamoud, Ghasaniya, Kafradeen, Darat Izzah, Qarqour, Al-Ziyara, Tel Wasit, Mansoura, Khirbet al-Naqous, with many more also suffering indiscriminate shelling and strikes.
The targets have been exclusively civilian as mentioned by the White Helmets who named several targets, “popular markets, residential neighborhoods, four schools, a mosque, a Syrian civil defense center, an electricity utility center, and a fuel station,” displacement camps, including a camp for the victims of this year’s devastating earthquakes, have also been targeted all in violation of international humanitarian law prohibiting the deliberate targeting of civilians and vital infrastructure. In the last 48 hours, attacks have also used internationally banned incendiary munitions using white phosphorus.
A statement released Thursday closed by imploring the international community to hold Russia and Assad to account and to take action to defend the Syrian people immediately. “These terrorist attacks are a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, which explicitly prohibits targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. The deliberate targeting of markets, residential neighborhoods, schools, public facilities, and rescue teams is an act that demonstrates a complete disregard for human life and deliberate killing of civilians and all causes of their stability and livelihoods.”
