The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that at least 56 civilians, including 19 children and six women, were killed in bombardment and shelling by the Assad regime and Russian forces on Idlib province between 1-15 November.
In a report issued on Monday, the Network said that the victims included a medical worker, a civil defense volunteer, and a media activist.
The report indicated that the Assad regime forces killed 20 civilians, including six children and two women, while Russian forces killed 36 civilians, including 13 children and four women. It also said that it these forces committed one massacre in the same period.
The monitoring group also said that it recorded new fewer than 46 attacks on vital civilian centers in northwestern Syria by the Assad regime and Russian forces in the same period. It said that regime helicopters dropped at least 54 barrel bombs on the region in the same period.
The Assad regime and Russian forces violated several provisions of the international humanitarian law as they did not distinguish between civilians and combatants or between civilian and military targets, the report said, adding that these forces targeted hospitals, schools, and civilian neighborhoods. It stressed that these attacks constituted war crimes.
The Network asserted that the Assad regime’s forces committed the crime of mass forced displacement against the civilian population in blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, adding that these actions amounted to a crime against humanity under Article VII of the Rome Statute.
Moreover, the Network said that Bashar al-Assad is to blame for the abuses by the armed forces and the breaches of the ceasefire. It said that Assad visited the town of al-Habit in southern rural Idlib last month and personally supervised the artillery shelling on northwestern Syria by loyalist forces stationed in the town of Talas.
The report called on the UN envoy to Syria to condemn these crimes, massacres and those responsible for stalling the political process, calling on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution to establish a ceasefire in Idlib and to include punitive measures for violations of the ceasefire. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
