Secretary of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Riad Alhasan said that the brutal onslaught by regime forces and their allied foreign militias on the besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo violates international resolutions on Syria and risks undermining chances of reaching a political solution.
Regime and Russian forces on Thursday resumed aerial bombardment on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo. The policy of barbaric bombardment, besiegement and starvation of the civilian population to force them out of their homes is a war crime for which the perpetrators must be held to account, Hasan stressed.
The international community’s silence over those violations is no longer acceptable, Hasan added.
Activists in Aleppo said that the Assad regime and Russian jets have conducted over 80 airstrikes on the rebel-held parts of the city since midnight. Internationally prohibited weapons, such as napalm and phosphorus, were used in the attacks. The airstrikes targeted mainly vital civilian facilities and caused dozens of civilian casualties.
Multiple airstrikes hit civil defense centers, putting two of them out of service. The civil defense corps in northern Syria, also known as the White Helmets, were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for their role in helping victims of bombardment by Russian and Assad regime forces.
Hasan pointed out that the Assad regime and Russian forces have been systematically targeting vital civilian structures in Aleppo to render life impossible in the city and weaken rebel resistance and then force them to agree to a so-called reconciliation and evacuation deals. He stressed that this tactic, which the Assad regime has previously employed in Homs and the Damascus suburbs, risks undermining the political process and serves to bring about a demographic change in Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
