President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Hadi Al-Bahra, has strongly condemned the ongoing targeting of schools by the Assad regime and its allies, deeming it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a grave infringement on the rights of children to a secure life and access to education.
In a statement posted on X website last Sunday, Al-Bahra emphasized the urgent need for the international community to take decisive actions to halt the regime’s continuous atrocities against civilians. These include indiscriminate bombings affecting children, women, and essential public facilities such as schools and hospitals. Al-Bahra underscored the regime’s persistent breaches of ceasefire agreements and protocols, expressing concern that the lack of effective international intervention serves as encouragement for further crimes and blatant violations of established international norms and laws prohibiting the targeting of educational institutions.
The gravity of the situation was highlighted by an incident on December 2, where three students and a teacher were injured in a school in the village of Afes, east of Idlib. The casualties resulted from artillery shelling by regime forces directed at the schoolyard during official working hours, causing widespread fear and panic among students and educational staff, compounded by the ongoing bombardment of the village.
According to the Syrian Civil Defense, the month of October witnessed a peak in attacks on schools and educational facilities by the Assad regime and Russia. The reported incidents included 15 attacks, with notable examples being the targeting of the Hussein Haj Aboud school in Sarmin on October 3, the Najib Al-Daqs school in Al-Bara, and the Ibn Khaldoun school in Binnish on October 5. A fourth school in Jisr al-Shughur was targeted on October 7, followed by an attack on a school in Abzimo on October 8.
The Civil Defense emphasized that these assaults occurred during a major escalation initiated by the Assad regime and Russian forces on Idlib, its outskirts, and the western Aleppo countryside in early October. Subsequent attacks included the bombing of the vicinity of a school in Quneitra village on October 21, and the targeting of the Ahmed Sablo school in Ariha, the Mustafa Omar Mustafa school, and the Eastern School in Al-Tawama village in the western countryside of Aleppo on October 24. During this time, regime forces employed missiles carrying incendiary ammunition, exacerbating the severity of the assaults on educational institutions.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
