Editing office - Geneva
GENEVA (20 February 2019) – The intensified ground-based bombardment of Idlib and surrounding areas by government forces and their allies in recent weeks, coupled with a series of attacks by non-State actors, has led to numerous civilian casualties and left some one million people, including hundreds of thousands of displaced people, in an extremely vulnerable situation, the UN Human Rights Chief said on Tuesday.
GENEVA (19 February 2019) – The intensified ground-based bombardment of Idlib and surrounding areas by government forces and their allies in recent weeks, coupled with a series of attacks by non-State actors, has led to numerous civilian casualties and left some one million people, including hundreds of thousands of displaced people, in an extremely vulnerable situation, the UN Human Rights Chief said on Tuesday. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on all parties involved, as well as external governments with influence, to ensure that the protection of civilians is held paramount in the planning and execution of all military operations in accordance with international law. The bombardment of the "demilitarized buffer zone" that includes Idlib and areas of northern Hama and western Aleppo Governorates started to escalate in December 2018 and has further intensified in recent days. At the same time, there has been an increase of infighting amongst non-State actors and in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in areas they control, including by the extremist group, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). While a comprehensive count of civilian casualties has not been possible, credible reports of specific incidents that led to civilian casualties include the following:
1- 29 January: 11 civilians, including a woman and a boy, killed and nine others injured in ground-based bombardment that hit residential neighborhoods and a local market.in Ma’arrat An Numan, in southern Idlib Governorate
2- 11 February: a girl killed in the city of al-Dana in northern Idlib Governorate, reportedly in crossfire between ISIL and HTS fighters.
3- 12 February: 11 civilians, including a boy, killed by shelling in different areas of Ma’arrat An Numan district in southeastern Idlib.
4- 15 February: at least four civilians including two women were killed and nine civilians including four women and five children (three boys and two girls) injured as a result of bombardment of Khan Shaykun.
5- 16 February: five civilians, including two women and two boys, reportedly killed by ground-based strikes that hit Khan Shaykun in southern Idlib.
6- Yesterday, 18 February: 16 civilians – including women and children – were reported killed, and more than 70 injured, in the Qusour neighbourhood of Idlib, by two explosive devices, the second of which appears to have been designed to kill and maim people, including medical workers, trying to aid the victims of the first bomb.