Since last December, the Syrian regime and its allies, have been attacking the last opposition strongholds in northwestern Syria. The ongoing military campaign with the restless aerial bombardments has made advances allowing the regime to take over many areas and large towns in Idlib governorate and the western countryside of Aleppo including Ma`rat al-Numan, Saraqib, and the M5 highway which links Aleppo to the capital Damascus.
Recently, some Turkish observation points, which were established based on the Astana de-escalation agreement between Turkey and Russia, were hit by the Assad regime causing causalities among the Turkish soldiers. As a result, Turkey has been sending more enforcements to Idlib and the tension is on the rise.
The campaign has resulted so far in more than 2500 casualties and many more injuries. About 600000 people were forcibly displaced out of their homes under the worst humanitarian conditions. These figures are likely to explode shall the regime attack Idlib city, a home of nearly one million population. Displaced population have been moving to the north gathered near the shut border with Turkey.
The nearly 3.5 million residents of northwest Syria, who opposed the Syrian regime, fear a fate of being killed, detained, and tortured shall Assad regain control, and thus, might have no option but to flee the country. Many of those people were fled from other parts of Syria including, Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Daraa.
SBC calls for urgent actions to protect civilians in Idlib. We believe that the Turkish-Russian de-escalation agreements during the past periods are falling apart, and therefore there should be international parties monitoring these agreements. We hereby urge the British Government and its allies, and the international community to intervene to protect civilians in Idlib. SBC is stressing on the necessity of exploring all options for civilians protection in Idlib.
