More than 100 civilians were killed in the past 10 days as a result of airstrikes by the Assad regime and Russian forces on northwestern Syria, the United Nations human rights official said.
“As a result of airstrikes over the past 10 days alone, eight locations in Idlib and two in rural Aleppo have witnessed civilian casualties, resulting in at least 103 civilian deaths, including some 26 children,” said Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement on Friday.
“These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident,” Bachelet added.
Bachelet rang the alarm Friday at the apparent international indifference to the rising civilian death toll caused by a succession of airstrikes in Idlib and other parts of north-western Syria.
More than 400,000 people have been displaced in northwestern Syria since the start of the Assad regime onslaught on the region in late April, David Swanson from the UN’s humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) said Friday.
Local media outlets reported renewed airstrikes on rural Idlib early on Saturday, targeting the towns of Ariha and Hallouba. The airstrikes killed five civilians, including a child, in an initial death count and injured dozens more. Airstrikes hit a popular market center in the town of Saraqib on Friday, killing and injuring many civilians.
In a press conference on Thursday, President of the Syrian Coalition, Anas al-Abda, said that “the victims of these attacks are not only victims of the Assad regime and its allies, but also victims of the international community’s inaction and indifference. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
