The UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet expressed her concern with the situation in Syria where presidential forces airstrikes have killed at least 103 people during the last 10 days. As UN News reported on Friday, the targets for airstrikes included civilian objects like hospitals and schools.
Twenty-six children are among 103 killed by the Syrian air forces and allies, Ms Bachelet said. Despite the cruelty of airstrikes, the rising toll had been met with “apparent international indifference”, the UN chief HR added.
“Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions,” Bachelet said.
The Bashar al-Assad government began its offensive against the rebel enclave in northwest Syria at the end of April. Since then, that zone of active insurgent opposition to the legitimate leader remains the target for the regular airstrikes. According to the presidential office, Idlib insurgents are responding to violations of a truce.
Since April, the offensive has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes or temporary shelters to seek refuge near the border with Turkey and has killed hundreds of civilians, according to war monitoring organizations.
Both the Syrian government and its Russian ally, whose air power has been critical to Damascus’ military gains in recent years, deny targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure. The spike in violence has killed more than 740 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian internal armed conflict took the lives of thousands of people
More than 400,000 people have fled violence in the area since the end of April, said David Swanson of the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office OCHA.
The northwest region (nearly all of Idlib and parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces) under attack is home to some three million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country.
