BALADI NEWS
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a report released Sunday December 14 that the Syrian regime and allied Russia are responsible for bombing of Qahh Camp in north of Idlib and the killing of 11 Syrian children.
As the report reveals, the attack took place on the evening of Wednesday, November 20, 2019, between 19:45 and 20:20, when Syrian Regime forces and pro-Syrian regime Iranian militias, which SNHR believes were stationed in Jabal Azan area in the southern suburbs of Aleppo, used a missile platform to fire a Tochka 9M79 missile loaded with 9n24 cluster submunitions that fell on Qahh IDP Camp, resulting in the deaths of 16 civilians, including 11 children and three women (adult female), and injured at least 50 others, as well as inflicting damage on the Maternity Hospital, and damaging at least 10 of the tents.
The report further reveals that the attack caused the displacement of approximately 80 percent of the already displaced camp residents, who fled due to their fear of the camp being subjected to further attacks. As of the date of publication of this report, SNHR has recorded only a small percentage of these people returning to the camp.
The report reveals that there have been at least 12 attacks carried out by Syrian Regime forces, in which Tochka-series missiles were used, with the missiles being loaded with cluster submunitions in at least three of these cases.
The report notes that the Syrian regime’s reconnaissance aircrafts had been flying over the camp for several days prior to the attack, which indicates that the Syrian regime is fully aware of the civilian nature of its target and the camps’ occupants; in addition to this, regime forces chose to use cluster munitions to carry out this bombing, meaning that the attack constitutes a compound crime.
The report documents at least 79 attacks on IDP camps carried out by Syrian-Russian alliance forces since March 2011 up until this latest attack on Qahh Camp. Sixty-one of these attacks were carried out by the Syrian regime, while Russian forces carried out the other 18. Among these attacks, the report documents 11 on IDP camps during the recent military campaign launched by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces since April 26, 2019.
The report further reveals that at least 487 cluster munitions attacks took place since the first documented use of these munitions in July 2012 up to November 20, 2019, with 243 of these attacks carried out at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, and another 236 being by Russian forces, with an additional eight attacks being Syrian-Russian operations.
The report stresses that the bombardment of the IDP camps and civilian gatherings has spread further terror and fear among already traumatized displaced persons and has grossly exacerbated their disastrous humanitarian situation, which is already suffering from a deterioration in terms of the initial humanitarian response.
The report calls on the UN special envoy to Syria to condemn the perpetrators of crimes and massacres, to hold those who are primarily responsible for obstructing the political process to account, and to re-sequence the peace process so that it can resume its natural course after Russia’s attempts to divert and distort it, through empowering the Constitutional Committee prior to the establishment of a transitional governing body. The report also stresses the importance of demanding that the Syrian regime, its Russian ally, and opposition factions end all violations and secure good faith measures by stopping the bombing and at the very least disclosing the fate of the forcibly disappeared persons.