Russian forces launch 16 raids and cause a horrific massacre in Idlib countryside

Damascus – Al-Quds Al-Arabi: Russian warplanes committed a horrific massacre, which claimed the lives of 7 civilians, including a father and a child, as a result of intense bombing that targeted an industrial site and a house, on the outskirts of the towns of Sheikh Bahr and Hafsarja, west of Idlib, in conjunction with ground bombardment of the Syrian regime forces with missiles carrying cluster bombs. On the Roj plain in the Idlib countryside, northwest Syria.
Media activist Muhammad al-Khatib, from Idlib countryside, said in a call with “Al-Quds Al-Arabi” that Russian warplanes carried out more than 14 raids on Idlib countryside, killing 7 civilians, most of them workers at a “stone workshop”, noting that among the victims were a father and his son.

Two members of the “SDF” were killed in clashes in Al-Hol . camp

The Syrian Civil Defense said that the workers were inside a “stone sawmill striving to survive and support their children, as more than 19 people were killed and wounded in an indefinite toll of air strikes by Russian warplanes” on the outskirts of the village of Hafsarja, and another targeted the Al-Ghafar area in the Roj Plain, west of Idlib, which was also hit. To bombard with a surface-to-surface missile loaded with cluster bombs in conjunction with the air strikes.

16 air strikes

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Russian warplanes bombed a house and an industrial facility in the Sheikh Youssef area in the western countryside of Idlib, where 3 Russian warplanes launched air raids on areas in the vicinity of Hafsarja and Sijar and near the village of Al-Ghafrah in the Sahel al-Rouj area in the western Idlib countryside. The new strikes are the first in the month of September, and came more than a week following the last strikes on August 31.
The observatory documented 16 Russian air strikes that it carried out on the de-escalation zone, during the past month, following which no casualties were recorded. The escalation comes in the context of the Russian policy towards the de-escalation zones outside the control of the Syrian regime in northwestern Syria, sending bloody messages to Ankara, according to analysts, to achieve some concessions in several files, on top of which is rapprochement with the Syrian regime, under the pretext of the latter’s failure to implement its pledges to dismantle Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
The researcher at the Mashreq and Maghreb Center Abbas Sharifa, translated the escalation as a Russian reaction as a result of the failure of a number of meetings in which Russia demanded the opening of the M4 international road, and the opening of the Saraqib crossing between the regime’s areas and Idlib, in addition to its demands to pass aid and trade through local lines and crossings instead of From the Bab al-Hawa crossing. In the face of all these Russian demands, it seems that there is a stumbling block in reaching an understanding between the Turkish and Russian parties, so Moscow believes that “Russian military pressure must be exerted on the local forces in Idlib, as well as Turkey mainly.”
Regarding the contexts in which Upper Egypt comes, the researcher said that it comes within two contexts: “The first is general, which is giving Russia the right to escalate and the right to target as long as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham exists, as a card it uses to intervene, create tension and open battles in Idlib and its surroundings.” As for the specific context, “it relates to the issue of crossings, trade exchange, opening Saraqib crossings, as well as allowing the movement of civilians and movement between regime areas and opposition factions.”
The researcher at the Syrian Foundation for Studies and Public Opinion Research, Rashid al-Hourani, agrees with the analysis that the Russian escalation is due to several reasons, the most important of which is pressure on Turkey and forcing it to make concessions, especially with regard to the issue of rapprochement and openness to the Syrian regime, as “the Russians see that this method is feasible in their dealings with Turkey, including Regarding the situation in Syria.

Two killed in Al-Hol

According to the spokesman, Russia is also trying not to show it is affected by what is happening in Ukraine, and to highlight the ability to manage the conflict on both fronts, noting that Moscow’s messages go beyond Turkey, as they are also directed to Tehran and its militias, which have strengthened their positions in the axes of northwest Syria, stating that “the decision related to the battle Whether or not, escalation or stability is in their hands.” Iran must realize this.
On another front, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced on Thursday the killing of two of its members during clashes with an armed cell of the Islamic State that tried to escape from the overcrowded al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. The camp, located in the farthest corner of Al-Hasakah Governorate and housing regarding 56 thousand people, regarding half of whom are Iraqis, witnesses security incidents from time to time, including escape operations, attacks once morest guards or humanitarian workers, or murders affecting its residents.
“Two of our fighters rose from the wounds they sustained during a clash with an armed cell” affiliated with the organization on Thursday night in the camp, said the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose backbone is the Kurdish fighters and is supported by Washington, in a press statement. According to the statement, clashes erupted between the two parties while the group, which included two women and five men, disguised as women, attempted to flee the camp. After encircling it, its members proceeded to “shoot our forces, which responded in kind.” During the clash, one of the group’s members was killed, while the other six were arrested.
Two weeks ago, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched a security operation inside the camp, once morest the backdrop of increased tension and attacks inside the camp. The international coalition led by Washington announced in a statement on Wednesday that the security operation resulted in the arrest of dozens of members of the organization inside the camp, and the dismantling of its main networks. On the fifth of this month, the Syrian Democratic Forces managed to “liberate four women in the camp who were found inside tunnels, tied with chains and tortured by the organization’s supporters.”
Since the summer of 2014, the organization has controlled large areas in Syria and neighboring Iraq, before it was gradually expelled. In March 2019, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced the defeat of the organization following taking control of its last strongholds in the town of Al-Baghouz (east), with the support of the coalition.

… and ten in Aleppo

Despite repeated calls and warnings from international organizations of “catastrophic” conditions, especially in the al-Hol camp, most countries refuse to take back their citizens. It also did not respond to the Autonomous Administration’s call for the establishment of an international court to try the jihadists in its prisons. In Aleppo, the Syrian authorities announced that at least ten people were killed in the collapse of a building in the city of Aleppo in the north of the country. The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said that “the number of deaths due to the collapse of a violating building in the Al-Firdous neighborhood in Aleppo rose to ten following the bodies of six women, 3 children and a man were recovered, while a child and a woman were rescued from under the rubble and taken to the hospital for treatment.”
SANA quoted the police chief, Major General Deeb Dib, as saying that “the building consists of five floors and completely collapsed,” noting that “the teams of civil defense, firefighting, health, and the Aleppo City Council began evacuating residents from nearby buildings and removing the rubble.” According to the head of the Aleppo City Council, Maad Medelji, “the reason for the collapse of the building was the lack of engineering foundations,” stressing that it was “a building within an area of ​​violations that was destroyed” during the battles that the area witnessed during the war between the regime forces and opposition factions.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that “the neighborhood was previously bombed with barrel bombs and missiles” during the war. The conflict in Syria, since it began in 2011, has resulted in the killing of regarding half a million people, the displacement of millions of others inside and outside Syria, and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.