A joint investigation by a number of Syrian rights groups has revealed new information on the systematic targeting of health facilities in Idlib province by the Assad regime and Russian forces during the month of April of this year.
According to a report published on Friday under the title: Medical Facilities Under Fire, 25 hospitals and medical facilities in Syria were attacked in April 2017, an average of one attack every 29 hours.
The report said that 91% of these attacks have been independently found to be carried out by the Assad regime and Russian forces. Many of the facilities targeted by the airstrikes were located in Idlib province.
The Assad regime and Russian armed forces were responsible for eight attacks on hospitals and healthcare centers in April of 2017- facilities serving a combined 1.3 million people, as reported in witness statements as well as by the managers of those medical facilities.
The Syrian Archive, a Syrian-led initiative that works to promote sustainable peace and respect for human rights within Syrian society, and its partners, including Syrians for Truth and Justice rights group, analyzed and verified this pattern of attacks by cross referencing a combination of open-source visual content, flight observation data, and witness statements.
“Findings regarding these attacks were characterized by repeated bombardments, lack of warnings, and an absence of active military hostilities in the vicinity of the attack,” the report added.
“The added value of this report to the efforts mentioned above includes damage identification, as well as cross referencing and contextualizing visual content (75 verified videos) with witness statements (14 people) and with flight observation data (6343 observations) provided by a spotter organization of aircraft in the immediate vicinity of hospitals at the time of attacks.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
