The Russian air force carried seven air strikes on the town of Benin in rural Idlib yesterday, two of which using internationally banned white phosphorous rockets. Four civilians were killed and many more wounded in the attack, the first of its kind in the ongoing war.
Earlier today, the Russian air force struck rural Latakia, the town of Tamana’a in rural Idlib and the rebel-held Taftanaz airbase with cluster bombs.
The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns Russia’s use of cluster bombs against populated areas in many villages and towns in rural areas of southern Aleppo and in the district of Douma in rural Damascus.
The Syrian Coalition calls upon the United Nations and the UN Security Council to condemn Russian acts as it is tantamount to war crime and a crime of genocide, to stop it and hold the perpetrators accountable.
The Syrian Coalition stresses that the Russian government bears legal consequences of the killing and destruction caused by its brutal and deliberate bombardment of Syria.
Moreover, the Syrian Coalition points out that hospital and local reports confirm that Russian air forces dropped dozens of rockets, each one containing 100 cluster bombs in civilian areas, refugee camps, markets and field hospitals. These attacks have left civilian casualties, including women and children.
The Assad regime has repeatedly used internationally banned munitions against residential areas, not to mention barrel bombs and chemical weapons, most notably in the Ghouta Massacre in August 2013 when nearly 1,507 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in a sarin attack by regime forces.
One hundred of the United Nations’ 192 members signed a convention banning the production, storage and use of cluster munitions in Oslo in 2008. The convention requires signatories to help the victims of these munitions whether they are countries or individuals. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
