Activists in Idlib province said that at least 135 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured in airstrikes and barrel bomb attacks by the Assad regime and Russian forces on the province over the past three days. The bombardment targeted mainly public markets and residential buildings in a grave escalation in parallel with the ongoing brutal onslaught on Aleppo and its countryside.
Member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Adnan Rahmoun condemned the escalating war crimes being committed by the Russian and Assad regime forces in Idlib and Aleppo. He lamented the lack of any response by the international community which is standing idly by as the Assad regime and Russia are committing these crimes using internationally banned weapons, including vacuum bombs, cluster bombs, and white phosphorous.
Rahmoun called upon the UN Security Council and the international community to put an end to the war crimes being committed by the Assad regime and its allies and to assume their responsibilities to protect civilians. He stressed that those who keep silent over war crime are partners to their perpetrators.
Idlib administration on Monday announced it was suspending its work as a result of intensive aerial bombardment by the Russian and Assad regime air forces with the exception of civil defense and medical services. Idlib University and the Department of Education in Idlib also announced they were closing down until the weekend for fear of aerial bombardment.
Activists in rural Idlib said that three regime airstrikes hit a public market in the town of Sarmin on Tuesday, killing 10 people, including four children and two women. Russian jets launched multiple airstrikes on the main high street in the town of Maaret Alnouman, killing eight people and wounding dozens more. Two more civilians were killed in regime airstrikes on the town of Maarrat Masrin. In total, over 40 civilians were killed in the aerial bombardment that hit at least 11 towns and villages across Idlib on Tuesday.
On Monday, Russia and China vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for the imposition of a 7-day cease-fire in Aleppo so that humanitarian aid could reach the city’s besieged eastern neighborhoods. The draft resolution was proposed by New Zealand, Spain and Egypt. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)
