Regime forces’ escalation within the demilitarized area in Hama and Idlib countryside kill 30 civilians including 22 children and woman in 5 days, and more than 2000 families are forced to displace from their areas in Sahl al-Ghab and south of Idlib
Checkpoints and barracks of the regime forces began a very large-scale escalation on the 14th of February 2019, involving areas of the truce of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Russian President Vladimir Putin in the countryside of Hama and Idlib, particularly, in the northern and northwestern sectors of Hama countryside, and the southern sector of Idlib countryside to include tens of towns and villages there, and during the last 5 days the sources of shelling were checkpoints of “al-Tarabie’” south of Halfaya city, al-Nahel checkpoint in al-Suqaylabiyah city in the western countryside of Hama, Joureen Camp in Sahl al-Ghab area, Shatha Camp, in addition to points in which forces of the Syrian regime are located in Zallaqiyyat village, Morek, Soran, Abu Dali, Tal Bazam, and Qbibat Abu al-Huda, the shelling also was focused on the cities of Khan Shaykhun and Maarrat al-Nu’man in the southern countryside of Idlib province, in addition to other towns, and this escalation has caused significant casualties since the 15th of February 2019 until today, where the Syrian Observatory documented the death of 30 civilians including 11 children and 11 citizen women, they were killed in the heavy shelling that targeted the countryside of Hama and Idlib, also the violent shelling killed 5 members of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham north of Hama.
These escalations forced civilians to leave their homes and resort either to other villages and towns or to border areas in camps, while some of them stayed out in the open under difficult humanitarian conditions, and reliable sources told the Syrian Observatory that more than 90% of the population of Qal’aat al-Madiq town and villages of Sahl al-Ghab such as Hwaiz, al-Hwyja, and al-Sharia and others, where they were displaced to other towns and villages in the Syrian north and to its camps during the period between the 14th and the 19th of February 2019, under the harsh cold there and the difficulties they face in obtaining tents and basic materials, but many displaced families headed to Sahl al-Ghab area at the western countryside of Hama, to the villages of Jabal Shashabo which are considered less affected and bombed than others, while sources reported that a civilian delegation from Sahl al-Ghab villages in the western countryside of Hama came on the 16th of February 2019, to the Turkish point in Shir Mghar in Jabal Shashabo, where the delegation met the Turkish military officials to ask them to clarify what is going on of the intensification of shelling in the current days, and the delegation included the heads of local councils and representatives of civil institutions and civilians, where the response was that it is unlikely for a military operation to be launched against Idlib Province by the Russians and the Syrian regime, also the use of Air Force is also unlikely, while the officials confirmed to the delegation that the stay of these Turkish observation posts depends on finding a definitive solution to the Syrian issue, while the shelling continued violently after that meeting on villages and towns in the countryside of Hama and Idlib, without any real change on the ground.
And in the countryside of Idlib, the situation was not better than Hama countryside, where Khan Shaykhun city had the largest part of the escalation in Idlib Province, as hundreds of shells targeted it in the few past days and took the lives of many civilians, after that; residents of the city had displaced from its eastern section to other sections, where the shelling there is less than in the shelling on the eastern section of Khan Shaykhun, and some of them preferred to flee outside the city towards their relatives and acquaintances in neighboring villages, towns, and agricultural lands to protect themselves from the death that follows them wherever they go, and the Syrian Observatory learned that the number of families who were forced to flee has reached to more than 2000 families from towns, villages, and cities of Khan Shaykhun, Al-Tah, Qal’aat al-Madiq, al-Sharia, al-Ankawi, Bab al-Taqa, al-Hamra, al-Hwayz, Hawijah, al-Twyna, al-Hawash, Al-Amqiyyeh, Qlidin, al-Deqmaq, and al-Zaqqum in the northwestern countryside of Hama and the southern countryside of Idlib.