Assad Forced Displacement of Aleppo’s Residents Amounts to A War Crime

Nora al-Ameer, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, calls on the international community to “stop the Assad regime’s forced displacement of the unarmed civilians out of Aleppo and its countryside. Regime forces’ escalating attacks and indiscriminate shelling on Aleppo caused mass displacement of the civilian population of the city. “This mass displacement of the civilian population is a war crime that is being met by international silence which is as heinous as Assad’s crimes themselves,” Al Ameer said. Her remarks comes after a wave of mass displacement out of Aleppo and its northern countryside in the wake of Assad’s amassing of his forces to encircle the city and after the horrific massacre committed by his air force in the village of Tal Qarah where 19 civilians were killed in aerial bombardment. Mohammed Qaddah, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, criticizes the US-led anti-ISIS alliance’s policy in Syria and its failure to provide the FSA with military aid in its battle against regime forces that are on the brink of encircling Aleppo. “The US-led anti-ISIS coalition’s singling out of the city of Kobane to receive military support while ignoring the rest of Syrian cities is unacceptable and detrimental to Syria’s national interests. Moreover, this selectivity in dealing with the situation in Syria, while aimed at serving specific international and regional interests, insists on ignoring the demands of the Syrian people for toppling Assad and building a state of law, justice and democracy,” Qaddah said. “We are worried that this strategy will prompt many rebel factions, even the moderate ones, to join the ranks of ISIS though not necessarily out of conviction of its radical views, but because ISIS would emerge as the sole guarantor for the survival of these factions in light of the lack of any significant military support. We reiterate that saving Syria cannot be done through partial solutions, but through supporting the FSA which has proved itself as the only force capable of defeating terrorism and preserving all components of the Syrian society. We do not exaggerate when we say that failing to support the FSA is tantamount to supporting ISIS. (Source: Syrian Coalition)