Mass demonstrations swept across many towns and villages in Idlib provinces and northern rural Aleppo and Hama to show support for civilians in Idlib and denounce any possible military action by the Assad regime and its allies against the region. The region is home to about three million civilians, half of whom were already forcibly displaced from other parts of Syria.
Activists said that thousands demonstrated after Friday prayers in rural Aleppo, Idlib and Hama to demonstrate solidarity with Idlib in the face of the Assad regime’s threats to assault the region and displace its inhabitants.
Demonstrators waved the flag of the Syrian revolution and chanted slogans emphasizing the continuation of the Syrian revolution until the fulfillment of its demands to overthrow the Assad regime and regain freedom and dignity.
They also stressed their insistence on achieving their demands and carried signs that read “resistance is our option” expressing their readiness to confront any potential military campaign by the Assad regime and its allies.
The demonstrators condemned the remarks recently made by the UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. The Syrian Coalition earlier said that de Mistura’s remarks came as a precursor to the planned onslaught by Russia and the Assad regime on civilians in Idlib.
Meanwhile, regime forces carried out rocket shelling on the town of Habeet in rural Idlib in the early morning hours of Friday, without reports of casualties among civilians.
Idlib province also saw intense activity by reconnaissance aircraft amid fears of renewed airstrikes on towns and villages in the region. The Syrian Civil Defense on Thursday said that its center in the town of Al-Tamana’a was put out of service after it was hit with airstrikes. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)