A number of journalists and human rights activists launched a campaign titled “Lift the siege of Deir Ezzor” to raise awareness of the suffering of civilians trapped in the districts of Al-Joura and Al-Qousur in the city after they imposed a siege and entered its second month.
The organizers said that this campaign has a humanitarian objective, namely lifting the siege on the city which “cannot be justified by any law nor be acceptable by a sound mind and or an upright approach.” The campaign also focuses on “the Assad regime’s exploitation and extortion of the trapped civilians amid severe shortage of basic needs, leaving them caught in the crossfire of the war between the two parties who compete in demonstrating their brutality and disrespect for human lives.”
Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition Salem al-Meslet calls on the US-led anti-ISIS alliance to expeditiously act to lift the siege ISIS has laid on Deir Ezzor for two months.
“ISIS has laid siege on the districts of Al-Joura and Al-Qusour in the city of Deir Ezzor for the second month, causing a huge amount of suffering for over 300,000 civilians trapped inside. They prevent entry and exit of civilians, block the entry of food and medical supplies, and cut off communications, power and water. In its scale and brutality, ISIS’s besieging of civilians bears resemblance to the Assad regime’s strategy of inflicting collective punishment on civilians in the rebel-held areas,” he noted.
“To keep hold on power and restore its authoritarian rule, the Assad regime is gambling with the lives of civilians by avoiding targeting ISIS positions thus allowing this extremist group to grow and flourish,” he added.
Meslet points out that “thousands of children, women and the elderly are languishing ISIS terrorist acts and waiting for “the help of the international coalition, which succeeded in relieving several Iraqi towns and the town of Ayb Al-Arab (Kobane) in Syria. We call on the US-led coalition to effectively coordinate with the FSA to help the Syrian people defend themselves against the terrorist attacks of both ISIS and the Assad regime. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
