Russian MIG jets bombard Northern Syria on revolution’s twelve-year-anniversary
Pro-Syrian regime fighter jets have bombarded two standing buildings in Idlib, near the Turkish borders - killing a family of four.
In the midst of the earthquake aftermath, where over 70,000 people were killed in Turkey and Syria, Russia strikes again. Suffering both 7.6 and 7.7 magnitudes over a month ago has left fewer standing buildings in Northern Syria, allowing it to become a hunting ground for war planes.
Search teams attempting to rescue survivors under the rubble. Photograph: EyePress News/Rex/Shutterstock
In the early hours of the twelve-year Syrian revolution anniversary, March 15th, residents faced their new day with cries and screams. Belal, 36, a father of four and a local civilian, said “I was awoken by the screams of my young kids, at first I thought it was another earthquake but the sound of the MIG jet soon clarified that we are once again under attack.”
Two four-storey buildings were targeted in this attack. Luckily, one of the buildings was totally empty from any civilians. “Our neighbour building was a little shaky due to the earthquake, so it was left empty until work can be done on it, now it’s on the ground, you would think the earthquake was the cause of it” said Belal.
A Russian Air Force MiG-29 Jet. Daniele Faccioli/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images
The victims were a family of four. Five, eight and nine were the ages of the children, and their mother was 32. Having escaped the slaughter of Baba Amr in Homs City over eight-years-ago resulted with further nightmares. Starting with the regime detainment of the children’s father three-years-ago, and never to be heard from again.
“This is disgraceful, over ten years of war and the international community does nothing… Ukraine’s war, one year and the world armed, yes armed them. All love and respect for Ukraine but what are we – pests?” Said Belal’s brother Hakeem.
The UN Human Rights Office estimates 306,000 civilians were killed over 10 years in the Syrian conflict. Activists argue that this number is very far off, with citizen journalist Mohammad Dughaim saying “the deathtoll has surpassed the million mark, so many mass graves and unidentified victims are not taken into consideration when working out this sad number of lives.”
Pressure is building on Russian fronts, actively engaging in war crimes in both Syria and Ukraine has exhausted its large number of forces. Mr Dughaim said “The Russians are employing high felony life serving convicts from the prisons of Syria, Iran and Belarus… often when clashes happen between the Free Syrian Army and the regime, ID’s connecting the dead to different countries are found on the regime corpses. On many occasions Iranian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Russian and Afghani ID’s.”
Messages calling to topple the regime in Northern Syria, 2013. Credit: Ahmad El Khalaf
The Syrian crisis started with the illegal regime detainment of over a dozen young children in 2011. Imprisoned and tortured for calling to topple the regime with the art of graffiti, their fingernails were removed. This has led to a massive outcry from the Syrian public.
Continuous war crimes are being committed by the Syrian regime. The UN have confirmed the regime’s extensive use of Sarin gas on two occasions. This lethal weapon is one of the most-toxic chemical weapons in existence, and banned internationally since three decades.