At least 40 civilians were killed and dozens more wounded in airstrikes by the Assad regime and Russian forces on rebel-held areas across Syria on Monday. The airstrikes were concentrated on Aleppo and its countryside, while over 50 barrel bombs hit the district of Daraya west of Damascus in the last 24 hours.
Dozens of airstrikes by Russian jets as well as barrel bomb attacks by the Assad regime’s helicopters hit Aleppo on Monday. A barrel bomb attack left over 15 civilians killed in the neighborhood of Almash-had in Aleppo, amid fears the death toll may rise as many people are still trapped under the rubble.
Nearly 30 airstrikes by the Russian forces targeted the town of Alatareb west of Aleppo on Monday, killing at least 12 civilians, including children, and wounding dozens more. Four people were also killed in Russian airstrikes on the town of Abbin in rural Idlib on Monday.
The escalating aerial bombardment of Aleppo has increased the suffering of civilians trapped in the city’s east after regime forces cut off the Castello road, the only lifeline connecting the liberated parts of the city to northern rural Aleppo. With the siege now in its 19th day, the lives of over 300,000 civilians are threatened by hunger and shortage of basic necessities.
In rural Damascus, meanwhile, regime helicopters dropped over 50 barrel bombs on the district of Daraya in the last 24 hours. The bombing caused massive damage to residential buildings, while regime forces renewed attempts to storm the rebel-held parts of the district besieged for over three years.
Regime forces on Monday bombed the city of Dara’a with rockets and heavy artillery, killing four civilians, including three children. Regime forces continued to blow up houses located close to the battle frontlines of the town of Alyadodah in western rural Dara’a.
Member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Abdul Ahad Steifo on Monday said that the destruction and havoc the Assad regime and Russia have wreaked on the liberated parts of Aleppo city over the past two days disprove their claims about commitment to a political solution in Syria. Steifo stressed that the bombing of hospitals by the Assad regime and Russian forces further shows they are determined to pursue a military solution to the conflict.
“Facts on the ground clearly indicate that the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies have chosen to carry on with the slaughter of civilians, the bombing of hospitals, and the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure,” Steifo stressed. He stressed that sponsors of the political process should take this reality on the ground in Syria into account and put an end to the ongoing war crimes committed by the Assad regime and its allies against the Syrian people.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that the Assad regime still refuses to implement international resolutions and instead carries on with the slaughter and displacing of civilians as well as the destruction of Syria.
Speaking at the meeting of the Arab Summit held in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott on Monday, Al-Jubeir said that Bashar al-Assad and everyone with blood on their hands must not be given any role in Syria’s future. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
