Volunteers of the Syrian civil defense held sit-in protests in many of their centers across Idlib province to protest against the Assad regime forces and their allied militias’ intensified bombing campaign and to show solidarity with the people in rural Idlib and rural Hama.
The civil defense volunteers were joined by civilians and activists who gathered in Idlib city as well as the towns of Kafranbel, Ariha, Jisr al-Shughour and Harem to condemn the intensifying aerial, artillery and rocket bombardment of Idlib province. They also demanded the release of detainees from the prisons of the Assad regime.
The protestors in Kafranbel in rural Idlib called on the international community to assume its responsibilities with regards to the ongoing military escalation by the Assad regime’s forces and their allies in the region.
The civil defense volunteers raised signs that read “crimes against humanity are taking place in Assad regime’s prisons,” “our determination is high,” “your lives are so precious,” “Assad’s prisons are human slaughterhouses,” “we call on the international community to take action to ensure the release of hundreds of thousands of detainees in Assad’s prisons.”
The Civil Defense Corps, also known as the White Helmets, called for ratcheting up pressure on the Assad regime and the Russian guarantor to stop the barbaric bombing campaign against civilians in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.
The ongoing bombing campaign has so far claimed the lives of no fewer than 85 civilians, including 36 children and injured hundreds more, mostly women and children, half of whom are in Khan Sheikhoun.
The shelling also forced thousands to flee to relatively safer areas, while schools have been suspended in the targeted areas. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
