Attacks by the Assad-Russian military alliance on November 6, 2022, used banned cluster munitions on four camps for internally displaced people, killing eight civilians and wounding dozens of others, including a 28-year-old pregnant woman who died of her wounds, along with her fetus, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
“The Syrian-Russian military alliance continues to defiantly use banned weapons against a trapped civilian population in Syria with devastating consequences,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Not only are cluster munitions harming Syrians today, but unexploded submunitions can go on killing long into the future.”
“Concerted international efforts are needed to demonstrate that there are consequences for continuing atrocities in Syria,” Coogle said. “Impunity will only breed more unlawful attacks and civilian carnage.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed eight witnesses in the camps, who said that the strikes took place sometime between 6 and 7 a.m., when some people were still sleeping, others were at the mosque for morning prayers, and children were getting ready for school.
The Syrian Civil Defense said that the attack caused massive damage to the IDP camps as 24 makeshift shelters were destroyed while 160 others were damaged.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) earlier said that he international community’s silence is encouraging the Assad regime to commit more crimes and violations against innocent civilians in the liberated areas of Syria.
The SOC stressed that the bombing camps for the internally displaced is a war crime, calling for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to take punitive measures against the perpetrators of these atrocities against the Syrian people.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
