Town of Habeet Declared ‘Disaster Area’ as 80 % of Residents Flee Intensified Airstrikes

ARK News: More than 80 percent of the people of the town of Habeet in southern rural Idlib fled their homes to escape the intensified bombing campaign the Assad regime and Russia forces launched in the area. The bombings killed dozens of civilians and prompted local officials to declare several towns and villages ‘disaster areas.’

The local council in Habeet declared the town a disaster area due to the heavy shelling by the Assad forces. Thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, were forced to move to unofficial IDP camps along the Syrian-Turkish border. A UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday warned that Idlib could become the worst humanitarian disaster in this century.

The Hama Provincial Council said that 342 families that were displaced from eastern rural Hama village about a year ago to the area of Khan Sheikoun were displaced again to Ghorba IDP camp west of the town of Ma’aret al-Numan to escape the bombardment. The Council pointed out the households suffer severe shortages of basic necessities.

The Syrian Coalition earlier stressed the need to protect civilians in Idlib province which became overcrowded following the mass forced displacement and demographic change operations that were carried out by the Assad regime forces and their Russian ally. It said that the international community must stand against any military campaign that may affect the region as it warned of the Assad regime’s plans to sabotage the political process and wreak havoc and destruction in the region.

(Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)

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