The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the Russian forces have killed more than 6,000 Syrian civilians since the beginning of its direct military intervention in Syria in September 2015. It noted that the Russian forces committed dozens of massacres in the areas covered by the ‘de-escalation zones’ agreement which was reached in May 2017.
In a report issued on Wednesday, the Network said that the Russian forces have killed 6,187 civilians, including 1771 children, since September 2015.
The monitoring group said it had closely followed the situation of human rights in the areas covered by the agreement, adding that the Assad regime and Russia were responsible for the overwhelming majority of violations in those areas.
The Network cited the massacre that was caused by Russian airstrikes on the village of Zardana northeast of Idlib claiming the lives of at least 52 civilians, including 10 children and 10 women and injuring more than 80 others.
“In this massacre, the Russian forces deliberately carried out two successive air attacks in order to kill the largest possible number of people, including civil defense volunteers who were trying to rescue the victims of the first airstrike,” the rights group said.
The Network pointed out that this double-tap attack confirmed the existence of a high degree of indifference and lack of fear of any accountability on the side of Russia. “A criminal often tries to conceal his crime by fleeing the crime scene. Russia, on the contrary, is showing total disregard for all legal and human values in a way that is unknown to mankind in modern times.”
“All peoples and human rights advocates around the globe share the responsibility to condemn such barbaric crimes.”
In a previous report, the Network said that it had documented the occurrence of no fewer than 186 massacres in the first half of 2018. It also said that around 86 medical personnel, civil defense volunteers and media activists were killed across Syria in the same period. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
