The Syrian regime and its Russian allay have killed 26 civilians and injured 118 others in Idlib in December 2023.
“The Syrian regime forces and armed groups supported by Iran and Russia carried out 118 ground and air attacks on the de-escalation zone during last December,” said Hamid Qatini, from The Syrian Civil Defence (White Helmets) in Idlib.
Qatini added that these attacks targeted villages in Idlib and Aleppo, resulting in the death of 26 civilians and the wounding of 118 others.
He pointed out that the attacks targeted 7 schools, a bakery, 4 camps, 6 popular markets, and two mosques.
In May 2017, Turkey, Russia, and Iran announced forming an agreement to establish a “de-escalation zone” in Idlib and parts of the countryside of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia, within the Astana meetings on Syria, but the Syrian regime forces and their supporters continue to attack the region regularly, despite the ceasefire agreement signed on March 5, 2020.
Since March 18, 2011, a civil war erupted in Syria after the Syrian regime fiercely suppressed protests denouncing human rights violations in the country.
Over the past years, the Syrian regime granted citizenship to members of groups affiliated with Iran, for their participation in its war on the opposition since 2011.
Millions of displaced people live in camps in northern and north-western Syria, after fleeing the regime’s bombing of their villages, towns and cities.
The international humanitarian law prohibits targeting and attacking civilians, whether in groups or as individuals, and stressed the need to respecting their lives and physical and mental integrity, protecting and treating them humanely. To achieve this, the intervention of the international community and human rights organisations is needed to protect the Syrians from such attacks.