Hopes that Syria – decimated by more than five years of multilayered conflicts – could finally be put on path to rehabilitation – were dashed to pieces after a series of civilian killings from bombings of marketplaces and medical facilities threw the Arab country back into the bottomless pit of violence.
As per reports, the latest casualties took place in Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and rural Damascus, Idleb and Deir ez-Zour.
The United Nations says the killings reveal a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives by all parties to the conflict.”
The new bouts of violence raise a question over the future of UN-brokered peace talks between Syrian opposition and the Bashar al Assad regime, which has been widely accused of unleashing some of the worst crimes against humanity with its state terror campaigns since 2011 Arab uprising.
Russia and Iran have backed Assad as over the past five years multiple local, regional and international players have turned Syria into a battlefield of nightmares for the families, women and children, pushing millions out of the country as refugees.
Amid spreading chaos, UN Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura expressed fears in Geneva that nationwide “cessation of hostilities” – achieved as a result of a US and Russia led international group’s agreement – faces a collapse in the face of renewed hostilities.
The terrorist organizations like ISIS have also been responsible for much mayhem in the ancient country.
A BBC report quoting Syrian state media as saying that rebels shelled a mosque in the government-held district of Bab al-Faraj, killing eight people.
The same BBC report says the Syrian militar has announced a “regime of calm” will take effect elsewhere in Syria early on Saturday – but officials offered no details what they meant by the statement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, while expressing his outrage at the bombings, has blamed the Syrian government for the attack on al Quds hospital, which, a BBC report said, was completed destroyed in Wednesday’s bombing.
“We are outraged by yesterday’s airstrikes in Aleppo on the al Quds hospital supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which killed dozens of people, including children, patients and medical personnel,” the chief American diplomat said.
“It appears to have been a deliberate strike on a known medical facility and follows the Assad regime’s appalling record of striking such facilities and first responders. These strikes have killed hundreds of innocent Syrians,” he said in a statement.
A Business Insider report, meanwhile, says 55 civilians were killed in the attack on the hospital.
The report quotes Jan Egleland, chairman of the UN humanitarian task corce for Syria as saying that the situation has resulted in a “catastrophic deterioration in Aleppo over the last 24 to 48 hours.”
“Doctors have been killed, health workers have been killed, and medical workers have been blocked from coming to their patients,” he said. “We can now refute allegations we heard from some government people and others that there are only fighters and terrorists in Daraya. We have seen with own eyes very many children, very many other civilians,” he said, according to Business Insider.
Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein documented some incidents in a statement.
“In Idleb last week, on 19 April, bombs were reportedly dropped in a vegetable market in Maarat al-Nu’man, the busiest area in town, during the busiest part of the day, killing at least 44 people and destroying dozens of shops. In the town of Kafr Nabel, bombs were again dropped on a market in the busiest area of the town, narrowly missing an after-school centre containing 50 children aged 6 to 10,” he added.
In the opposition-controlled part of Aleppo over the past few days, pro-Government aircraft have destroyed a key hospital and other medical facilities, reportedly killing a number of medical personnel, including the only remaining paediatrician in the area, as well as many patients.
In the Government-controlled part of Aleppo, another hospital was struck and many civilians were killed in attacks launched in a number of neighborhoods.
“In short, the violence is soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities. There are deeply disturbing reports of military build-ups indicating preparations for a lethal escalation,”. Zeid said.
According to a UN report while information is much more difficult to gather from ISIL-occupied areas, the High Commissioner expressed deep concern at the numerous allegations of civilian casualties due to air strikes.
“Urgent action is needed by all relevant actors to ensure the protection of civilians and their right to life, and to fight the impunity that has done so much to encourage the multitude of horrendous breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law that have taken place in Syria over the past five years,” Mr. Zeid stressed.
“In the context of such an abysmal situation, the persistent failure of the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court is an example of the most shameful form of realpolitik,” the High Commissioner said.
“In the minds of many, the world’s great powers have in effect become accomplices to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of human beings, and the displacement of millions. There is currently no disincentive for any of the many war criminals in Syria to stop contributing to the wild spiral of killing and destruction that has engulfed the country,” he added.
The High Commissioner also urged the international community to “address the terrible suffering of the Syrian people with the resolve that has been so absent for so long.”
“The cessation of hostilities and the Geneva talks were the only game in town, and if they are abandoned now, I dread to think how much more horror we will see in Syria,” he concluded.
