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Friday, 3 May, 2019 - 07:00
Smoke billows after reported shelling by pro-regime forces in Idlib province. AFP file photo
Geneva - London - Asharq Al-Awsat
Schools, health facilities and residential areas have been hit in northwestern Syria in the worst barrel bombing in the past 15 months, United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis said Thursday.
Russian and Syrian forces intensified air strikes and shelling in the area that is held by armed factions, the heaviest assault since it was declared a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish deal, residents and medics said.
"The barrel bombing is the worst we have seen for at least 15 months," Moumtzis told Reuters.
He added that 300,000 people live in the buffer zone where there are hostilities.
Earlier this week, the United States warned violence in the buffer zone "will result in the destabilization of the region".
Since Tuesday, attacks have forced thousands of civilians to flee to camps further north along the Turkish border and damaged four medical facilities, according to Idlib civil defense officials and a US medical aid agency working in the area.
"Medical facilities are being evacuated, leaving the most vulnerable with no access to medical care. We are on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe," Khaula Sawah, vice president of the US-based Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations said in a statement on Wednesday.
Syrian army helicopters have dropped barrel bombs, which are drums or cylinders packed with explosives and shrapnel that cause indiscriminate destruction, killing at least 15 civilians and injured dozens, rescuers in Idlib province said.
Opposition-run civil defense agencies say hundreds of people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Russian and Syrian strikes since the September deal, which prevented a potentially devastating offensive on Idlib and nearby areas held by insurgents and now home to over 3 million people.
Syrian state media, quoting army sources, blamed the armed opposition for the assaults and said it had targeted "terrorist groups" in towns in northern Hama including Kfr Nabouda.
It also said al Qaeda-inspired groups have stepped up drone attacks on Russia's main air base near the Syrian Mediterranean coast, but that these have been unsuccessful.
Idlib is held by an array of opposition groups. The most powerful is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Turkey, which has supported the opposition and has troops to monitor the truce, has been negotiating with Moscow to halt the strikes with little success.
The main Turkish-backed opposition grouping said they were rushing extra fighters to the main fronts to face all "possibilities".
In response to the escalation, opposition factions said they mounted several rocket attacks on army positions including the Breideej base in northern Hama, injuring and killing at least four Russian soldiers in a mortar attack that hit their vehicle.
"We have stepped up our readiness and sent troop reinforcements to confront any attack (by) the regime and the Russians on any area," said Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the National Liberation Front coalition of opposition groups.
"We cannot leave matters like this... We are preparing for any possibility," he added.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1705946/worst-barrel-bombing-idlib-15-months
Smoke billows after reported shelling by pro-regime forces in Idlib province. AFP file photo
Geneva - London - Asharq Al-Awsat
Schools, health facilities and residential areas have been hit in northwestern Syria in the worst barrel bombing in the past 15 months, United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis said Thursday.
Russian and Syrian forces intensified air strikes and shelling in the area that is held by armed factions, the heaviest assault since it was declared a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish deal, residents and medics said.
"The barrel bombing is the worst we have seen for at least 15 months," Moumtzis told Reuters.
He added that 300,000 people live in the buffer zone where there are hostilities.
Earlier this week, the United States warned violence in the buffer zone "will result in the destabilization of the region".
Since Tuesday, attacks have forced thousands of civilians to flee to camps further north along the Turkish border and damaged four medical facilities, according to Idlib civil defense officials and a US medical aid agency working in the area.
"Medical facilities are being evacuated, leaving the most vulnerable with no access to medical care. We are on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe," Khaula Sawah, vice president of the US-based Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations said in a statement on Wednesday.
Syrian army helicopters have dropped barrel bombs, which are drums or cylinders packed with explosives and shrapnel that cause indiscriminate destruction, killing at least 15 civilians and injured dozens, rescuers in Idlib province said.
Opposition-run civil defense agencies say hundreds of people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Russian and Syrian strikes since the September deal, which prevented a potentially devastating offensive on Idlib and nearby areas held by insurgents and now home to over 3 million people.
Syrian state media, quoting army sources, blamed the armed opposition for the assaults and said it had targeted "terrorist groups" in towns in northern Hama including Kfr Nabouda.
It also said al Qaeda-inspired groups have stepped up drone attacks on Russia's main air base near the Syrian Mediterranean coast, but that these have been unsuccessful.
Idlib is held by an array of opposition groups. The most powerful is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Turkey, which has supported the opposition and has troops to monitor the truce, has been negotiating with Moscow to halt the strikes with little success.
The main Turkish-backed opposition grouping said they were rushing extra fighters to the main fronts to face all "possibilities".
In response to the escalation, opposition factions said they mounted several rocket attacks on army positions including the Breideej base in northern Hama, injuring and killing at least four Russian soldiers in a mortar attack that hit their vehicle.
"We have stepped up our readiness and sent troop reinforcements to confront any attack (by) the regime and the Russians on any area," said Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the National Liberation Front coalition of opposition groups.
"We cannot leave matters like this... We are preparing for any possibility," he added.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1705946/worst-barrel-bombing-idlib-15-months
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