A new Amnesty International report documented 18 cases where Syrian and/or Russian government forces targeted medical facilities and schools in Idlib, western Aleppo, and north-western Hama governorates.
Starting last year, the regime forces – backed by Russia – launched military campaigns against Idlib and its surrounding, which is home to three million people approximately.
Evidence of the attacks entails multiple serious violations of international humanitarian law, according to Amnesty International.
"These violations amount to war crimes," the report says.
Notably, a ceasefire has become effective since March 6 in Idlib and its surrounding, yet thousands are still homeless and rely on aid amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, said that “The latest offensive continued an abhorrent pattern of widespread and systematic attacks aimed at terrorizing the civilian population. Meanwhile, Russia has continued to provide invaluable military support – including by directly carrying out unlawful airstrikes – despite evidence that it is facilitating the Syrian military’s commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Amnesty International documented Russian strikes that flattened at least two residential buildings around the hospital in Arihah on Jan. 29, killing 11 civilians and the Syrian forces’ use of ground-fired cluster munitions against a school on Feb. 25, killing three.
The war in Syria has so far killed more than 380,000 and displaced millions. It also destroyed infrastructure and exacerbated the economic situation and various sectors.
