Press release
Syrian National Coalition – Syria
Department of Media and Communications
November 21, 2019
In the past few hours, Russian jets, regime forces, and Iranian militias committed a series of crimes and massacres. An IDP camp near the village of Qah in northern rural Idlib was directly hit with a ballistic missile carrying cluster munitions. The town of Maret Al-Nouman was also hit by aerial bombardment which caused many civilian casualties and massive destruction.
These deadly attacks came as part of the brutal onslaught being launched by the Assad regime and its allies on the region in blatant violation of international agreements and resolutions as well as of international law and the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians. The onslaught has killed nearly 100 civilians, mostly children and women, since the beginning of November.
The Assad regime forces and Iranian militias shelled an IDP camp near the village of Qah with a missile loaded with cluster munitions. The attack killed 12 people, mostly women and children, and injured dozens more as well as caused massive destruction to the camp. It also forced dozens of households to flee the camp. The Russian airstrikes on the town of Maret Al-Nouman killed six civilians, among them children and women.
These reprehensible crimes and grave escalation were encouraged by the lukewarm international response as well as the utter inaction towards the killing of civilians by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran.
The international community’s continued inaction towards these crimes will not only fail to contribute to supporting the political solution, but will also open the door wide for more killings and crimes. This inaction will also encourage the Assad regime and its allies to insist on pursuing the policy of massacres and displacement as a means to achieve their goals.
The Syrian National Coalition reiterates its call for the establishment of an effective international mechanism to rein in the regime and its allied militias, ensure an end to bombardment and massacres, and create the suitable conditions for the success of a political solution in accordance with UN resolution 2254 ensuring the restoration of the rights of the Syrian people.
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