The Assad regime forces have violated the truce at least 911 times since it came into force on December 29, 2016, the Syrian Coalition’s media office said on Tuesday. According to figures compiled by the office, regime forces and their Iranian-backed militias were jointly responsible for 114 beaches, while the Iranian-backed militias were responsible for 11 separate breaches.
At least 823 people have been killed across Syria over the past month, the office said. The death toll included 319 people who have been killed in the areas covered by the ceasefire agreement.
The regime’s breaches took the form of targeting civilian areas and rebel positions, while breaches by the foreign militias have been the targeting of civilian areas in the towns of Madaya, Zabadani, and Baqqin in Rural Damascus.
The figures showed that Russian forces violated the ceasefire 72 times even though Russia is a guarantor of the agreement along with Turkey. The majority of breaches took place in the provinces of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Dara’a, and Homs and to a lesser extent in the provinces of Idlib, Damascus, Quneitra, and Latakia.
The most serious of these violations took place in the Wadi Barada valley northwest of Damascus where residents in the area have been forced to move to Idlib province following a large-scale assault by regime forces and the Hezbollah militias on the area.
The Syrian Coalition on Monday warned that the mass forced displacement operations being carried out by regime forces aims to bring about a demographic change in Syria.
The regime’s bombardment on the Wadi Barada valley affected the Ayn Alfija water facility, the main water supply for Damascus and its countryside. According to UN estimates, over 5.5 million people have been denied access to clean water supplied by the facility. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)
