Salim Idris, a member of the political committee of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), has strongly emphasized the urgent need for serious international action and accountability regarding the Assad regime’s extensive history of war crimes, including the relentless use of cluster munitions for over a decade.
Idris called upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities toward the Syrian people by putting an end to the daily atrocities and committing to a sincere, effective, and immediate pursuit of a political transition in Syria, in alignment with UN Resolution 2254. Furthermore, he stressed the imperative of holding the Assad regime accountable for its numerous crimes against the Syrian population.
In its comprehensive annual report for the year 2023, covering the period from August 2022 to June 2023, the Cluster Munitions Observatory disclosed disturbing findings. The report revealed that Assad regime forces extensively employed cluster munitions between 2012 and 2020.
Published on Tuesday, the Observatory’s report documented a total of 1,172 victims (both fatalities and injuries) resulting from cluster munitions during the period from August 2022 to June 2023, across eight countries, including Syria.
The report specifically highlighted instances where regime forces, with military support from Russia, employed cluster munitions in attacks on Maram camp for displaced individuals near Kafr Jalis, as well as other displaced people’s camps in Idlib, on November 6, 2022. These attacks resulted in the tragic loss of eight civilian lives and left at least 75 others wounded.
The report further underscored that cluster munitions had been used in 13 out of 14 Syrian provinces, noting a reduction in usage in 2021, followed by renewed deployment in November 2022 against camps for displaced individuals.
Remarkably, the report pointed out that in 2022, the majority of victims of cluster munition remnants in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen were children. Civilian casualties accounted for 94.5% of the total victims recorded throughout 2022.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
