SOHR: Children Among Casualties in Raids, Landmine Explosions in Northwestern Syria

The death toll from fighting and the explosion of mines and IEDs in northwest Syria’s Idlib governorate increased on Friday to eight civilians, including children.

 

A child and a man were killed and another two were injured in a landmine explosion while picking olives in the vicinity of San town in east Idlib’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

 

The war monitor has documented the death of 629 people, including 82 women and 226 children, by mines and IED explosions and the collapse of residential buildings in several areas in Homs, Hama, Deir Ezzor, Aleppo and the South since early January 2019.

 

Four children and a family of four had been killed in the past 24 hours, said Mohsen al-Ali, an activist in Idlib.

 

Ali said the family was displaced from the southern countryside of Aleppo following airstrikes by Russian warplanes on al-Habit area in the vicinity of Idlib city.

 

The area has four camps for the displaced from different areas of the southern countryside of Aleppo and Idlib countryside, Ali noted.

 

The airstrikes caused panic among the refugees, some of whom left their tents, fearing the jets would launch other airstrikes, he stressed.

 

On September 8, Russian warplanes launched six consecutive air raids on the same area, injuring seven children and burning tents for the displaced, along with artillery shelling by the regime forces stationed in the vicinity of the city of Saraqib, east of Idlib.

 

An official in Idlib, Ahmad Abdo, said the Russian airstrikes and attacks with artillery and missiles by regime forces and Iranian militias on the de-escalation zone since early July have resulted in the death of more than 213 civilians, including 61 children, 29 women, and five humanitarian workers.

 

Russian warplanes deliberately target areas hosting refugee camps to spread terror and fear among people, Abdo noted.

 

 

 

SOURCE: Asharq Al-Awsat