The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

With the blessing of Russia and the international community, media blackout and opposition’s silence… Turkish forces continue their massacres in Syria and kill about 400 Syrian civilians under the pretext of fighting the “Islamic State” organization

The international community turns a deaf ear to the continues killing in Syria, and also turns a blind eye to the bloodshed of this country’s people on their own land, backed by the world’s media brigades, which turned the lights off of a Syrian geographic spot, where the daily killing and destruction is practiced, as it did with many of the Syrian areas, relying on the selectiveness of events and shortening the issues, tragedies and large massacres. This disgraceful silence and blackout was followed by full silence by Syrian oppositionists about the practiced killing against our the sons of al-Bab city and its countryside, as if whomever lives in the “Islamic State” organization’s controlled areas is not a Syrian! And as if those who were bombed by shells coming from the north is not a Syrian civilian! His blood must be protected as the blood of any other Syrian citizen against any murderer like Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russia, Turkey, the “Islamic State” organization and all other military parties which operate on the Syrian territory.

The repeated attempts of advancement by the Turkish Forces towards al-Bab city came after the Russian green light obtained by Turkey, which allows it to advance towards al-Bab city and control it, and expelling the “Islamic State” organization from it, so Turkey aimed its shells, missiles and bullets to chests the Syrians and their bodies, under the pretext of the existence of the “Islamic State” organization, but the Syrian Observatory for human rights launched tens of warnings to all parties not to exploit the presence of members from the “Islamic State” organization or “jihadists” fighters in any area to target civilian and pretext with this rejected argument, and Turkey’s killing over the past 48 hours only have killed 18 civilian casualties due to targeting al-Bab city and Tedef town and other areas in its countryside at the northeastern countryside of Aleppo.

These successive casualties at the hands of Turkish forces were escalated after the first defeat in the 21st of December 2016, where it raised to 387, including 84 children under the age of eighteen and 53 citizen women over the age of eighteen, the number of civilian persons who were killed since the entry of Turkish forces and “Euphrates Shield” in the 24 of August 2016, they were killed in the incessant shelling on areas used to be controlled by the “Islamic State” organization and on other areas still controlled by the “Islamic State” organization in al-Bab city and towns of Bzaah and Tedef and other areas in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo, including 20 civilians -including two children and a citizen woman- killed by bombing by warplanes believed to be Russian on areas in Tedef town and other areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, also the military operations and the Turkish shelling and the air raids and explosions have injured more than 2500 civilians, including hundreds of children and citizen women, some of whom were permanently disabled, and also damaged property and public utilities.

Among the previous death toll there are 238 civilians, including 46 children and 26 citizen women, were killed in al-Bab area and its countryside in the incessant shelling since the first defeat for the Turkish forces, also 218 civilians were killed, including 44 children under the age of eighteen and 25 citizen woman, in shelling by Turkish forces and Turkish warplanes on areas in al-Bab city and other areas in the towns of Tedef and Bzaah, and other places in the countryside of al-Bab, while the Observatory documented the death of about 20 civilians -including two children and a citizen woman- by bombing by warplanes believed to be Russian on areas in Tedef town and other areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

The Turkish forces crossed the border in the 24th of August 2016, when the operation of “Euphrates Shield” was started, this operation consists of rebel and Islamic factions backed by the Turkish forces, they took control of Jarabulus city, and large areas of the northern and northeastern countryside of Aleppo, followed by the entry of a new batch of Turkish forces, vehicles, and tanks through areas controlled by the factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and the rebel and Islamic factions of the “Euphrates Shield” operation supported by Turkish tanks and warplanes were able to control the rest of the border between the western banks of the Euphrates River down to Azaz until they reached the edges of al-Bab city on the 13th of November 2016.

And with the silence of part of the Syrian opposition against the crimes committed by the Turkish Forces, whose objectives have become clear in the persistence of killing Syrian civilians after the killing by the regimes of Bashar al-Assad and Russia, and the Coalition and the rest of the military parties, movements and organizations in Syria, and with the Russian blessings and the caring of the international community for this daily Turkish kill which escalated in retaliation for killing and injuring of tens of Turkish soldiers by the “Islamic State” organization, we in the Syrian Observatory for human rights, we no longer know what party or international body to call in order to achieve justice of the murderers against their crimes, if most of them are standing as a watcher and listener, and sometimes as a person who enjoys watching the daily killing and this Syrian bloodshed on Syrian soil, but in spite of that we renew our call to those who still have humanity and conscience inside of them, and to everyone who is against killing and working to stop it, in order to strive and work to achieve justice and stop the kill. We in the Syrian Observatory demand the punishment of all perpetrators, instigators, collaborators and all individuals and sides who used the Syrian blood as a political card and as means to carry out their personal agendas, as well as those who transformed a revolution for dignity to a sectarian and ethnic civil war.