Press Release
Syrian Coalition – Syria
Department of Media and Communications
July 22, 2019
The hysterical bombardment by the Assad regime and Russian forces on rural Hama and Idlib provinces is causing yet new massacres. At least 50 people were killed by Russian airstrikes and barrel bombing by the regime helicopters in the past few hours. The attacks have also left dozens of people missing, injured, and trapped under the rubble of bombed buildings.
The initial death toll indicated that no fewer than 20 people, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes by the Russian occupation forces on a crowded market in the town of Maaret al-Nu’man on Monday morning. Similar attacks on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 17 people in the towns and villages of Idlib countryside, including 12 civilians who were killed in Assad regime airstrikes on the town of Orem al-Jouz in rrual Idlib, among them five children.
The crimes by the Assad regime and Russia are not only war crimes, but amount to what is more as they do not serve a purely military purpose. The targeting and killing of civilians is the main objective of the Russia and the Assad regime military operations, which turns the nature of these crimes into international crimes with criminal, international repercussions.
Over the past few hours, towns and villages in the provinces of Hama and Idlib have been subjected to brutal shelling. The death toll continues to rise and includes civil defense volunteers and first responders. These victims are not mere numbers; they have names, families, and friends. They were cherishing the hope that they will see and end to this war. They once had ambitions to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland and achieve their dreams, just like hundreds of thousands of the people who were killed during the course of the Syrian revolution.
It is clear that the Assad regime and its allies will insist on pursuing their policies in view of their tyrannical, dictatorial and oppressive nature. They cannot even consider alternative options other than mass murder. It is imperative, therefore, that the international community shoulder its responsibility with regards to the ongoing atrocious crimes aimed at undermining efforts to resume the political process.
The Syrian Coalition reaffirms that the United Nations and the international community, especially the main stakeholders, are capable of and have an obligation to put an end to these crimes, most notably the mass killings and forced displacement of innocent civilians and to reinvigorate the political process in accordance with international resolutions.
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