Secretary-General of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Haitham Rahma, warned of the danger of the Russian military escalation in northern Syria after several Russian airstrikes targeted the towns of Sheikh Bahr, Al-Bara and Kafar Daryan in rural Idlib, as well as the village of Sheikh Barakat in rural Aleppo on Friday.
Rahma added that Russia is seeking to aggravate the humanitarian tragedy in northern Syria where more than 4.5 million people live, half of whom are forcibly displaced. He stressed that civilians in this region are already suffering extremely dire living conditions as a result of the covid pandemic and the harsh winter conditions.
Rahma stressed that Russia has always bragged about testing more than 350 types of new weapons in its war against the Syrian people, including internationally prohibited weapons. It also deployed thousands of the Wagner mercenary group in Syria and displaced hundreds of thousands of Syrians from their homes, which represents outright international cross-border terrorism.
Rahma called for assuming a firm international position towards the continuous Russian threats against Syrian civilians, stressing that keeping silence about these threats will risk giving Russia a green light to commit more crimes in Syria.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)