Airstrikes by the Assad regime and Russia air forces earlier on Wednesday hit a schools complex and a public market in the town of Hass in rural Idlib, killing at least 26 civilians and wounding dozens more, mostly schoolchildren and teachers. High-explosive parachute-retarded bombs were used in the airstrikes, launched in a joint attack by the Assad regime and Russian air forces.
The Syrian Coalition condemned this heinous crime against schoolchildren and civilians. In a statement released following the attack, the Coalition stressed that the deliberate targeting of civilians using high-explosive weapons is clearly aimed at killing as many people as possible; causing mayhem; forcing civilians to leave their homes; and forcing them to agree to local truces out of the framework of the political process.
Responsibility for this heinous crime lies with the international community as world leaders and active members of the United Nations continue to ignore these war crimes, thus risk further fueling the conflict and undermining all chances of a political solution, the Coalition added.
The Coalition earlier said that the United Nations continues to ignore Russia’s crimes and its violations of international law, urging it to make a thorough and real reconsideration of its positions and performance on Syria after the election of a new secretary-general. (Source: Syrian Coalition)