The local council in the Al-Marj region east of the capital Damascus on Monday said that at least 60 civilians were killed over the past month. It declared Al-Marj a ‘disaster area’ as a result of the ongoing military operations by regime forces backed by the Russian air force and the foreign militias.
The council said that the figures it published covered the period between December 29 and January29, pointing out that the casualties included 143 people who were wounded.
The council pointed out that the Assad regime and its allies are using internationally banned weapons, including chlorine gas, in the shelling on the area. It noted that military attacks led to the displacement of about 1,600 families in Al-Marj as well as the destruction of 850 homes and caused damage to three schools.
Last week, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that at least 10,204 civilians, including 2,298 children and 1,536 women were killed across Syria in 2017, nearly half of them in attacks by the Assad regime.
The Network put forward a set of recommendations including calling on the UN Security Council to take additional measures to stop the indiscriminate bombardment that killed Syrian civilians and destroyed the country’s infrastructure a year after Un Security Council resolution 2139 was adopted. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
