Regime Forces Use Human Shields and Kill Members of the Mediation Committee

The Syrian Coalition launches an urgent appeal to the United Nations and its affiliated organizations, the Arab League, and human rights organizations to act immediately to save civilians in western Ghouta, rural Damascus. Humanitarian corridors are urgently needed to save the lives of men, women and children in Muadamiyah, which has been under siege by Assad’s forces for more than 330 days. The Syrian Coalition added that Assad forces “took unarmed civilians as hostages after promising safety to the mediation committee overseeing the evacuation process. According to a Syrian National Coalition statement, regime forces “targeted the area with shelling which killed three people and injured others. Then other civilians were used as human shields to prevent the Free Syrian Army from defending the city.” The Assad regime has infringed every international norm and convention during the past two and a half years. It has arrested, tortured, and killed peaceful protesters. It has carried out heinous massacres across Syria, targeting field hospitals and holy places of worship. Assad’s forces have raped, massacred, burned, and displaced civilians and starved innocent children to death. At the end of the its statement, the Syrian National Coalition demanded that the international community hold the Assad regime be held accountable and prosecuted for using civilians as human shields after giving them guarantees of safety. The Coalition considers this a clear violation of the principles of international humanitarian law and that what occurred are war crimes against humanity. (Source: Syrian Coalition)