Two new crimes in regime-held areas | Infant strangled to death in Aleppo while elderly person killed in Rif Dimashq
Syrian Observatory has documented 19 murders, mostly children and women, in regime-controlled areas since early January
Amid the lack of the simplest life essentials and in absence of security supervision, the crimes rate has been growing across Syria, especially in regime-held areas. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented a new horrific crime in Aleppo, when an eight-month-old baby was killed.
According to the Syrian Observatory, the infant was strangled to death for unknown reasons and motives in Bab Al-Nasr area in Aleppo city. The regime security services have managed to arrest a suspect. No further details have been reported.
Meanwhile, an elderly man was found dead by residents in Jadida Artouz town after being stabbed several times by a sharp object in his home in Al-Mahatta neighbourhood.
According to the residents, the killing had been carried out with the aim of robbery.
Accordingly, SOHR sources have documented 19 murders since early 2022, where domestic violence was behind some murders while motivations behind the others remained unknown. These murders left 19 people dead: six children under the age of eighteen, four women over the age of eighteen and nine men. The fatalities are distributed regionally as follows:
• A young lady in Damascus.
• A child, a little girl, an elderly person and a young man in Rif Dimashq.
• A man and two women in Tartus.
• A baby and two young men in Hama.
• A young woman, a little girl, a baby and three young men in Al-Suwaidaa.
• A man in Deir Ezzor.
• An infant in Aleppo.
SOHR would like to point out that the rate of murders committed under diverse reasons and motivations, including retaliation and domestic violence, in regime-controlled areas has been alarmingly increased, and this indicates that more murders are expected to be committed in light of the security vacuum and chaos in these areas.
We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), renew our appeals to the international community to intensify their efforts to reach a political settlement that could potentially put an end to the Syrian conflict and the suffering of Syrian people who have been grappling with chronic crises, including severing security vacuum throughout Syria, during Syria’s protracted war which has been raging for nearly 11 years.