The Syrian Civil Defense on its Twitter account has discussed the evacuation to less dangerous areas of dozens of families in Khan Sheikhoun in the southern Idleb countryside, which occurred during the heavy attacks that the area has been subjected to by war planes and barrel bombs. The Civil Defense said that, “Yes, it is migration, but to an unknown location,” adding that “nothing living remains in the city.”
The others parts of the “de-escalation zone” face the same fate, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recording that 47 barrel bombs dropped on parts of Idleb, Hama and Lattakia since Wednesday-Thursday night.
The Observatory said that 29 barrel bombs had fallen on various parts of Idleb, including eight barrels on Alhbeit and six on Khan Sheikhoun and its outskirts and six on Kabbaneh.
Regime warplanes have carried out 21 airstrikes since that night, with six on the Kabbaneh front and four on Khan Sheikhoun and four on Alhbeit and three on Maarat Hurmah and two on Hesh and two on Jbala and its environs.
According to the Observatory, Russian warplanes also carried out a number of raids on areas in the village of al-Enkawi in Sahel al-Ghab in the northwestern Hama countryside, while regime forces, with intensified artillery and rocket shelling, struck areas on the Kabbaneh front in Jabel al-Akrud and Ltamenah and Kafr Zita in the northern Hama countryside.
On Wednesday, three civilians were killed and others were wounded in the latest bombardment by Assad’s forces in the western Aleppo countryside, hours after a massacre carried out in Jisr al-Shaghour in western Idleb that killed and wounded at least 25 people.
The “de-escalation zone” is inhabited by about four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of those who were displaced from their cities and towns after the regime took control of them in the Damascus, Homs and Daraa countrysides.
The bombardments by the regime and its allies on the “de-escalation zones” has killed at least 135 civilians, and wounded more than 365 others since Apr. 25, 2019, according to the Syrian Civil Defense. It has also displaced hundreds of thousands to areas near the Turkish border.
The head of the High Negotiations Committee, Nasr al-Hariri, called on the Turkish guarantor on Tuesday to increase protections for civilians and to ensure the implementation of the Idleb agreement, saying that northwestern Syria could not fall to Assad’s authorities by way of force.
During his meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Hariri discussed the severe military escalation in Idleb by Assad’s forces and their allies.
Hariri said that he discussed with the Minister, the regime’s violations of the ceasefire agreement as well as the efforts being made to stop the escalation. He stressed the need for civilians to be protected during the ongoing operations and for the Idleb agreement signed last year to be implemented and for humanitarian aid to enter, according to the Syrian Coalition’s media department.
With regards to the Turkish position around the escalation, the committee head said that he felt there was great Turkish concern for what is happening in Idleb, and said that the regime and Russia were taking terrorism as a pretext to target civilians and destroy infrastructure, hospitals and schools.
Hariri said during his meeting that the Syrian opposition was, “fighting all forms of terrorism, including the terrorism of Iranian militias,” and added that this, “cannot undermine the Syrian people or put areas under regime authority by force” and said that this violated relevant UN decisions and the Idleb agreement.
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.
