Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on Russia to avoid bombing civilians and ensure humanitarian aid is allowed into the besieged areas as. The Assad regime continues to block UN aid deliveries in violation of UN Security Council resolution 2254.
“If Russia is serious about protecting civilians in Syria, it needs to do more to spare civilians from its airstrikes and ensure that its ally in Damascus allows aid into besieged areas,” said Nadim Houry, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. “Many of the de-escalation agreements have failed to deliver the promised protect for the residents there.”
Houry went on: “While the world talks about de-escalating conflict in Syria, residents in many of these supposedly safe zones are starving, lacking adequate medical care, or like the residents of Atarib, face deadly threats from the air.”
The watchdog group said that recent airstrikes by the Russian-Syrian joint military operation that hit a market and police station in the town of Atareb in rural Aleppo that is included in the de-escalation zones’ agreement.
The Syrian Coalition earlier strongly condemned the brutal crime committed by warplanes of the Russian occupation forces in Atareb claiming the lives of 67 civilians and wounding dozens more.
The eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus has been suffering tightened siege and relentless bombardment over the past three weeks. Medical sources in the rebel-held area said that a total of 227 babies died in 2017 because of severe shortages of food and medical supplies.
The Coalition emphasized that the fierce attacks being carried out by regime forces and their allies on the Damascus suburbs and rural Aleppo are clearly aimed at undermining all chances for a political solution by violating all agreements in place and insisting on carrying on with murder and crimes. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
