Press release
Syrian Coalition
Media Department
October 4, 2017
On Wednesday (October 4th), Russian occupation warplanes committed a horrific massacre near the town of Alashara southeast of Deir Ezzor claiming the lives of at least 50 civilians, mostly women and children.
Eyewitness reports confirmed that civilians were targeted while trying to cross the Euphrates River to escape the ongoing barbaric bombardment. Jets of the Russian occupation forces directly bombed the place in broad daylight, causing a massacre and injuring dozens of civilians.
Civilians trapped in the area are subjected to daily brutal bombardment by the Russian occupation and Assad regime air forces. They are also being subjected to terrorist acts by the ISIS extremist group amid utter silence by the international community and almost complete media blackout by several parties on the crimes being committed against the civilian population.
The targeting of displaced persons has become an almost a recurrent occurrence. This massacre comes only a few days after militias of the Assad regime opened fire on a convoy of civilians trapped in eastern rural Hama countryside, killing 80 civilians, including women and children, and injuring dozens more.
Tens of thousands of civilians are now trapped in rural Deir Ezzor while being subjected to intense aerial and land bombardment. They also suffer from lack of essential services, most notably a near total collapse of the health services amid an urgent need for food and medical aid.
The Syrian Coalition condemns this brutal crime as it holds the international community responsible for the escalating killing, war crimes, and violations of international law and UN Security Council resolutions by warplanes of the Russian occupation forces, the Assad regime, and the Iranian-backed militias.
The Coalition renews calls on the UN Security Council and UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura to take all necessary measures to ensure that civilians are protected, these crimes are stopped, and the perpetrators are held accountable.
