More civilians are being killed and displaced out of their homes in the ‘de-escalation zone’ in northwestern Syria as a result of the continued bombing campaign by the Assad regime and Russian air forces.
The Emergency Response Coordination Team in Syria said that the bombing campaign has been ongoing on for 21 weeks. It added that more than 93,274 households or 60,6272 civilians have so far been displaced from their homes to more than 35 sub-districts in the Shield of the Euphrates and Olive Branch areas as well as in northwestern Syria.
According to the report, the Assad regime and Russian bombing campaign has killed at least 859 civilians in northwestern Syria since February 2. Of those, 678 were killed in Idlib, 135 in rural Hama, 44 in rural Aleppo, and two in Rural Latakia. The victims included more than 20 civilians, including three children, who were killed over the past week.
The Team pointed out that the continued military operations in the demilitarized zone and its surrounding areas demonstrated that their primary goal was to force as many civilians as possible out of the region and bring about a demographic change in the region.
The Team condemned the continued military operations by the Assad regime and the Russian air forces which expanded the bombing campaign to target new areas in northwestern Syria.
The Team called upon the international community and the United Nations to shoulder their responsibilities with regards to the civilian population in Idlib and the surrounding areas. It also called for expediting the humanitarian response to the needs of the displaced persons from the demilitarized zone. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
