The latest bombardment by Assad’s forces on a number of villages and towns in the southern Idleb countryside and the northern Hama countryside killed more civilians. Casualties have been steadily rising amid a regime military escalation in northwestern Syria. The last few weeks have seen the deaths of more than 250 people in similar attacks, which have also displaced 186,000 civilians from their villages to other towns in areas outside regime control.
Assad’s forces have continued their rocket and artillery attacks in northwestern Syria, striking a number of villages in the southern Idleb countryside—in particular, the village of Abou Habbeh, near the village of Hesh in the southern Idleb countryside. The heavy artillery bombardment of this village wounded civilians, including women.
Video testimonies published by the Syrian Civil Defense showed the extent of the bombardment on Abou Habbeh, while members of the Civil Defense rushed to aid the wounded in the targeted area, which was a civilian district of this village.
Similar attacks have affected villages in Sahel al-Ghab in the northern Hama countryside and the village of al-Tamaneh in the southern Idleb countryside. The Syrian Civil Defense have said that the houses that were hit have been severely damaged by bombardments over the last few weeks and that 20,000 residents had been displaced deep into Idleb province.
The Response Coordinators team in northern Syria said in a report that the Assad regime’s military campaign, which has been ongoing since the start of February, had killed 254 people, 200 of them in Idleb province and 54 in northern Hama and Lattakia and western Aleppo.
The report also documented more than 186,000 people have been displaced from the areas where they live in Idleb and Hama to villages and towns in the areas outside regime control in northwestern Syria.
Since the Turkish-Russian agreement for a truce in Idleb and the establishment of the “demilitarized” zone, known as the Sochi agreement, on Sept. 17, 2018, the regime and its allies have continued their attacks in areas outside their control in northwestern Syria, which have killed hundreds of civilians, as well as displacing about 87,000 people between October to December 2018 alone. According to the Response Coordinators report, another 30,000 families have been displaced since February.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
