The Emergency Response Coordinators Team on Wednesday said it has documented the attacks by the Assad regime and Russian forces on schools and educational facilities in Idlib province over the past five months.
The Team said that the Assad regime and Russian air forces bombed no fewer than 44 schools in the province of Idlib in the period between January 5 and May 7, 2019.
Of those, 25 schools are located in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, seven in Kifranbel, five in Ariha, three in Jisr Al-Shughour, and one in Ma’aret al-Nu’man, the Team said. It noted that the damage ranged between 5 percent and 100 percent with many schools knocked out of action.
The Team called for putting pressure on Russia and the Assad regime to stop the targeting of educational facilities in the region.
The attacks are part of the fierce onslaught the Assad regime and its allies have launched against Idlib and its countryside.
Secretary of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee, Riyad Hassan, said that the Assad regime is seeking to destroy both the infrastructure of the country and the Syrian society through the systematic, deliberate targeting of vital civilian centers, including hospitals and schools.
Hassan said that the Assad regime and its allies’ attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure constituted blatant violation of all humanitarian norms and laws calling for sparing civilians, hospitals and schools.
The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also slammed the targeting of schools and hospitals by barrel bombs as violating the International Law.
Mogherini said that the European Union stressed the need to punish those responsible for these violations as she warned that the lives of about three million civilians in Idlib are at risk. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
