SOHR: A report reviewing the results of the Russian intervention in Syria for the year 2021

In its annual report on the Russian intervention in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that the year 2021 brought many developments at the political and security levels.

The observatory said that during the past year, Russia continued its attempts to “unilateralize the Syrian decision and remove Iran from its path.”

According to the report, Moscow sees Tehran as the only obstacle it faces in Syria.

security level

During the year 2021, the airspace of the Syrian Badia witnessed continuous daily flights of Russian warplanes, in the context of the continued air escalation by the Russian side over the areas of ISIS spread in separate locations and vast areas of the Badia.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has counted more than 12,230 air raids carried out by warplanes of the Russian Air Force during 2021, which resulted in the killing of 401 members of the organization and the wounding of 331 others.

Targeting areas of Turkish influence

The areas of influence of the Turkish forces and their loyal factions in the Aleppo countryside were not immune from Russian attacks, according to the observatory report.

More than 60 people were killed and wounded in the Russian air force’s targeting of Iranian influence.

The report says: “The ‘friendship’ between Putin and Erdogan did not spare these areas from ground and air strikes.”

The observatory counted 6 attacks, 4 of them air and 2 on the ground, which left 15 people dead, including 4 civilians and 11 from the “Hamza Division” faction, in addition to wounding 46 others with varying degrees of injuries.

Moscow-Tehran..Cold War

With the continuous Iranian penetration into Syrian territory and the great work it is doing to consolidate its presence in the country, the Russian side continues its moves to confront Iranian expansion and limit its role, within the framework of what the report described as a “cold war” between the two parties.

During 2021, each party sought to break up the partnership of control, and to monopolize the Syrian decision, while the Bashar al-Assad regime remained only a “nominal ruler”.

The report says: “Although this conflict includes the entire Syrian territory in general, it is concentrated in the Syrian south and west of the Euphrates in particular.”

In Daraa, Russia sponsors agreements and intervenes in the conduct of “settlement and reconciliation” in an attempt to win over more former faction fighters and attract them within the Fifth Corps to enhance the latter’s role in the Syrian arena, especially the military, while seeking to crowd out the Iranians in their “homeland”, as it is said, which is the area west of the Euphrates.

material temptations

SOHR sources confirmed that in the first half of 2021, the Russians worked to play the financial string in the western Euphrates region, “not only to attract young men and men, but also to lure local recruits to the pro-Iranian militias by leaving them and joining the Russians,” according to the report’s expression.

The Russian side offers a monthly salary of 240,000 Syrian pounds in exchange for leaving and joining these militias, which is double the monthly salary offered by pro-Iranian militias to local recruits.

The recruits “benefit” to work with the Russians by working within headquarters in Deir Ezzor and its countryside, with a 5-hour service and a break, and sources told the Syrian Observatory that about dozens have already accepted the Russian offer and left working with the Iranians.

new rules

The last quarter of 2021 witnessed an escalation of Russian reinforcements to enhance its presence in areas extending from the eastern countryside of Aleppo to Ain Issa, north of Raqqa Governorate, on the international road Aleppo-Hasakah.

In early November, the Russian forces established a military base on the Aleppo-Hasakah international road east of Manbij in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. According to the sources of the Syrian Observatory, Russian vehicles were stationed in an artillery base where the regime forces were stationed, and the new base is about 20 km away from the forces’ concentrations. Turkish in the North.

The Russians also tried to pressure the Syrian Democratic Forces to allow the regime forces to enter tanks into Manbij, east of Aleppo, and to deploy them in the area, but the SDF refused the request of the Russian general, who threatened to bomb the Al-Tayha / Abu Kahf crossing, located west of Manbij, which connects the regime-controlled areas with areas of control. Syrian Democratic Forces control.

lack of order

The regime’s warplanes and helicopters were absent from the airspace of the “Putin-Erdogan” area during the year 2021, but the Russian fighters acted on their behalf by killing Syrians and destroying infrastructure, as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counted more than 562 air strikes launched by warplanes of the Russian Air Force on the area “De-escalation”, during the year 2021.

Those raids killed 18 people, including: 14 civilians (including 6 children and 3 women) and 4 extremist groups, including a Turkestani and a Chechen. The Russian air strikes also caused the injury of more than 117 people, most of whom were civilians.

The massacres continue

The Syrian Observatory documented a massacre carried out by Russian fighters during the year 2021, specifically on November 11, when they killed 5 civilians, “the father, the mother, two of their children, and a third child their cousin” by targeting their house located on the outskirts of Bromma and the Al-Habat Junction in the northern countryside of Idlib.

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Those air strikes hit 62 locations and areas, 48 ​​of them in Idlib Governorate, five areas in Lattakia, six areas in Hama, and three areas in Aleppo.

Heavy toll .. and dangerous materials

It is noteworthy that the death toll at the hands of the Russian forces, according to the documentation of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, amounted to 20,944 dead, during the period since September 30, 2015 – the date of Russia’s entry into the line of military operations in Syria – to this day.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored Russia’s use during its air strikes of thramite, which consists of aluminum powder and iron oxide, and causes burns because it continues to burn for about 180 seconds, as this substance is found inside the bombs used by Russian planes in many bombing operations on Syrian territory. .

They are RBK-500 ZAB 2.5 SM cluster incendiary bombs, weighing about 500 kg, dropped from military aircraft, and carrying small anti-personnel and anti-machine bombs, type ((AO 2.5 RTM)), the number of which is between 50-110 A bomb, stuffed with “Thermite”, which shatters when used in the bombing, so that the anti-personnel and anti-vehicle bomb has a range of 20-30 meters.

the pretext of “terrorism”

The report concluded by saying: “Another year passes, and the Syrian people are still suffering from the scourge of Russian interference, this intervention that used the “war on terror” as a pretext for it to commit massacres against civilians.”

Through its report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirms that the real goal of the Russian intervention in Syria is not to fight terrorism, but to kill and displace civilians and destroy their homes and properties, in order to help the “regime” at the expense of Syria and civilians.

By the way, the Syrian Observatory has renewed its appeals to the international community to pressure Moscow to stop its aggression against Syrian civilians, and to work for a political solution that ends the Syrian tragedy that has been going on for more than a decade.