Syrian Coalition Urges Concrete UN Action to Protect Civilians from Assad Crimes

ARK News: The Syrian Coalition called on the United Nations to condemn the Assad regime's military attacks on civilians in the ‘de-escalation zone’ in northwestern Syria, calling for serious action to stop the bombardment and protect civilians.

Seventeen civilians were killed and many others were injured in the intensifying bombardment by the Assad regime and Russia in northwestern Syria on Sunday. Internationally prohibited weapons, such as cluster bombs, were used in the shelling in addition to heavy artillery and rockets.

The Syrian Coalition said that these attacks were added to the long litany of crimes against unarmed civilians.

Local activists pointed out that the Assad regime and Russia expanded the bombing campaign to include new areas. The bombardment coincided with violent ground attacks in rural Idlib and Hama.

The Civil Defense Corps said that six civilians, including four women, were killed in artillery and rocket shelling by the Assad regime forces on a farmland near the town of Qastoun in northern rural Hama. An airstrike killed a man and his son as well as injured six others in the town of Maarshourin in rural Idlib. Another child was killed in heavy artillery shelling on the village of Jadraya, while two other children were killed in similar attacks on the towns of Babilah and Ziyadiyah.

The Emergency Response Coordinators Team said that the continued bombing campaign has so far forced more than 93,274 households or 606,272 civilians from their homes, noting that the majority of the displaced people sought refuge in the Shield of the Euphrates and the Olive Branch areas as well as in relatively safer areas in northwestern Syria.

The Team said that the bombardment was aimed at changing the demographic landscape in the region as other human rights organizations warned of a repeat of the scenario of Aleppo, Daraya, eastern Ghouta, and northern rural Homs in northwestern Syria.

Source: Syrian Coalition

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