The Syrian Coalition condemned the assassination of civil defense volunteers in Aleppo province by unknown gunmen, stressing that attacking the civil defense volunteers is like attacking one’s doctor.
Unknown gunmen assaulted a civil defense center in the town of Tal Hadiyah in rural Aleppo at dawn today, killing four volunteers and wounding three others before fleeing.
Eyewitnesses in the town reported that unidentified gunmen riding in a porter vehicle attacked the civil defense center in the town located near the town of Hadir in southern rural Aleppo.
Activists pointed out that the gunmen also stole all equipment in the center, such as vehicles and mobile phones belonging to the slain volunteers.
The Coalition stressed the need for the concerned authorities in the area to go after the criminals and bring them to justice as soon as possible, stressing that attacking volunteers who brave death to save lives of civilians is tantamount to attacking innocent civilians everywhere.
A similar attack previously targeted civil defense volunteers, also Known as the White Helmets, in the town of Sarmin in eastern rural Idlib last year. The attackers shot dead all the volunteers inside and stole equipment in the center before they fled.
The White Helmets first emerged in 2012 to help victims of the Assad regime attacks on civilian areas. The organization received several international awards and was nominated by foreign and Syrian activists for the 2016 Nobel Prize.
The volunteer group, which was officially founded in October 2014, has 150 centers distributed across all the liberated areas in Syria. It carries out search and rescue operations among the rubble of bombed buildings and extinguish fires caused by the Assad regime and its allies’ attacks. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Baladi News Network)
