President of the Syrian Coalition, Abdurrahman Mustafa, condemned the Russian airstrikes on rural Idlib claiming the lives of many civilians and wounding many others as well as the use of the internationally prohibited white phosphorus, stressing that such attacks constituted war crimes.
“The Russian bombings in Idlib clearly constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity,” President Mustafa said in comments on Twitter on Friday.
President Mustafa denied the claims that the airstrikes had been carried out in coordination with Turkey. He explained that he communicated with the Turkish side with regards to the Russian allegations about coordination between them in this bombing, adding that Ankara denied the allegations. He described these allegations as “pure Russian propaganda.”
The Coalition earlier said that the latest Russian bombings and the Assad regime’s military escalation and its use of the white phosphorous is a breach of the Idlib agreement and an attempt to disrupt international efforts to reach a political solution in Syria.
The latest military escalation coincided with the Brussels III Conference being held by the European Union and the United Nations under the title “supporting the future of Syria and the region.”
The Coalition stressed that the regime and its allies’ plans involve military escalation and war crimes with the aim of avoiding engagement in the political process and blocking all international efforts to push for a solution. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
