The forces of Russia and the Bashar Assad regime have ceaselessly continued to target civilians in the past five days in Syria’s northwest, including on New Year’s Eve, while the number of civilians killed in 2021 by these forces has reached 225, according to a humanitarian group.
The White Helmets civil defense group announced on Sunday that a total of 225 civilians, including 65 children and 38 women have been killed by Russian and regime attacks.
“Our rescue teams saved 618 people including 151 children, all of them were injured by the attacks,” it said on Twitter.
Furthermore, it also highlighted that for the fifth day in a row, Russia continued bombing northwestern Syria. “Today, its military aircraft attacked the outskirts of Idlib city and Martabi village south of Idlib.”
Idlib continues to suffer at the hands of the Bashar Assad regime and its backer Russia. Both are determined to recapture the last opposition stronghold and normalize political relations with regional countries, particularly within the scope of steps already taken with several Arab countries.
The Idlib region is home to nearly 3 million people, two-thirds of them displaced from other parts of the country.
Furthermore, the United Nations also condemned the ongoing attacks.
“A water station in northwest Syria was badly damaged today in a bombing raid,” Mark Cutts, the U.N.’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria said on the same day.
“The country is already facing a water crisis and continued destruction of civilian infrastructure will only cause more suffering of civilians. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop!” he urged.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) also confirmed the attack on the al-Arshani water station in Idlib on Sunday.
“Fixed-wing warplanes, which we believe to be Russian, fired missiles near al-Arshani water station located in northwest Idlib city on Jan. 2, 2022, partially damaging the station’s structure and its perimeter fence, in addition to severely damaging the main pipeline used for pumping (water), and other essential equipment. The bombing also injured one of the employees at the water station,” it said.
The SNHR also underlined that the water station is located within a residential area free of any military presence and equipment.
For over a decade, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country’s population.
Frequent bombings and shelling have put nearly 50% of health facilities out of service, just as the Syrian people need them the most amid the coronavirus pandemic. Living in overcrowded tent camps or even out in the open in safe areas near the Turkish border, many are struggling to meet even basic needs.
"The Russians are focusing on infrastructure and economic assets. This is to add to the suffering of people," Abu Hazem Idlibi, an official in the opposition administration, told Reuters.
Nearly 75% of the total population in the opposition-held Idlib region depends on humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs, as 1.6 million people continue to live in camps or informal settlements, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Meanwhile, as Syrians entered another year in civil war and destruction, the SNHR also published a report showing the deaths and violence Syrians endured in 2021.
It said that 1,271 civilians, including 229 children, 134 women and 104 victims of torture were killed in 2021.
In a 33-page report, the SNHR stressed that the killings have continued for the 11th consecutive year and said that murder has become widespread and systematic, mainly at the hands of Syrian regime forces and affiliated militias. It also added that the participation of several new parties in the Syrian conflict has increased the importance and complexity of documenting the victims killed in Syria.
According to the SNHR, 75 civilians were killed by the PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, while United States-led forces killed another two civilians.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara.
The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria in its fight against the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Turkey strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Turkey and who terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.
Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. The SNHR stressed that all states should stop supporting the YPG.
It also said the first three months of 2021 made up 34% of the total death toll.
“At the beginning of June, the Syrian-Russian alliance forces launched a military campaign, targeting the Jabal al-Zaweya area and its surroundings, which remain outside the Syrian regime’s control in northwest Syria, using mostly ground attacks on civilian areas,” the SNHR added, saying that this campaign lasted until September.
The report also stated that Oct. 20 saw the biggest escalation in violence since March 2020, especially in the densely populated Ariha city.
Almost a million people had fled the Assad regime’s offensive on Idlib since December 2019 with many seeking refuge in overcrowded tent camps near the Turkish border. A truce was brokered between Moscow and Ankara in March 2020 in response to the months of fighting by the Russia-backed regime; yet, the regime still frequently carries out attacks on civilians, hindering the return of people to their homes and forcing them to stay in makeshift camps.
Idlib, whose 2.9 million inhabitants have been protected by a cease-fire since March 2020, is one of the few key areas still holding out against the Damascus regime.
It was a protest hub in 2011 and officially came under full opposition control some four years later.
A Russian-backed regime offensive in 2019 saw the Syrian regime retake more than half the province.
The SNHR noted that the attack came two days after the start of the sixth round of talks of the Constitutional Committee, “in a clear indication of the Syrian regime’s indifference to the agreements that could result from these meetings.”
“Idlib governorate saw the largest death toll compared to other Syrian governorates in 2021, accounting for 19.35% of the total death toll, followed by the Aleppo governorate with 18%, Daraa with 16.5%, Deir el-Zour, then Hasekeh.”
It also pointed out that seven health care workers were killed in 2021, one by regime forces and six by other parties in the conflict.
The humanitarian group called on the regime to stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools and markets, as well as for an end to its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers.
