Forces loyal to President Assad walk among the ruins of Aleppo. ‘The fate of Aleppo’s inhabitants may to a large degree depend on how global public opinion can now be mobilised.’ Photograph: SANA/ReutersEDITORIALLink
The situation in Aleppo is now more critical than it has ever been since the start of Syria’s civil war five years ago and this has come at a bad moment, when western attention is focused on terrorism in Europe or the US electoral campaign. We must, though, now attend to Syria as well. What is happening now could be a decisive turning point in the conflict, which will destroy whatever diplomatic hopes remain of a negotiated solution. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people are trapped in Aleppo’s eastern neighbourhoods, which are now entirely surrounded by Syrian government forces. These troops are assisted in their offensive by Russian air power and Iranian-controlled militias. No food, no medical aid, no humanitarian assistance, has been able to reach the population of Aleppo’s rebel-held territory for several weeks now, because of the intensity of the military onslaught.
Aleppo was once the second largest city in Syria, and it has been one of the key symbols of resistance to the Assad regime since 2012, when anti-Assad groups took control of parts of it. It has been a long-held goal of the Assad power structure to crush Aleppo. If nothing is done to stop the advance of his forces this disaster seems imminent. It would not just be a defeat for the rebels, perhaps an irreversible defeat for the uprising – it would be the beginning of a new, humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions in Syria.
The tragedy is not just that Aleppo is encircled, it is that the forces that have tightened the knot on it in recent days are set to either starve or empty it. Aleppo has been so massively shelled and bombed these past weeks that it has become an inferno for those who struggle among the ruins. There are hardly any doctors left in the city, and the last hospital has been destroyed. UN agencies say food stocks are barely sufficient to hold out for one month.
The Syrian government and its Russian allies are resorting to a tactic of siege and starvation that has been used before in Syria, but they are now doing it on a much larger scale, and openly. Their announcement of “humanitarian corridors” for civilians and rebels who would want to flee the area must be exposed as a cynical ruse. It is no surprise that Aleppo’s population is not rushing towards these exit corridors, which have not in any case materialised on the ground. The Assad regime’s promises are incredible. The Syrian government has demonstrated time and again how little it cares for international humanitarian law. Its machine of repression makes no distinction whatsoever between armed combatants and civilians. Tens of thousands have died in its detention centres. That Syrian and Russian officials have made the announcement without consulting or even warning UN agencies in advance is proof that they want no external witnesses to their misdeeds.
Aleppo’s siege must be urgently lifted. The plight has reached crunch time. International pressure must be put on Russia to force Syrian troops to retreat, so that lives can be saved. But the fate of Aleppo’s inhabitants may to a large degree depend on how global public opinion can now be mobilised. Saving Aleppo from utter destruction and more massacres is not only a humanitarian imperative, it is also the only way the thin chances of a settlement in Syria will ever be salvaged.
Charity says the facility that it supports in a rebel-held area of Idlib province has been extensively damaged The Guardian Link
An airstrike has hit a maternity hospital in northern Syria supported by Save the Children, the charity has said.
Two people were killed in the attack, and several others injured including a woman who was six months pregnant who lost her leg. Several babies were also hurt when their incubators crashed to the floor in the attack.
The hospital was the only one providing maternity services in the area and delivered about 300 babies a month.
The strike on the hospital in Kafar Takharim in a rebel-held part of north-western Idlib province came after earlier airstrikes that killed at least five people and injured more than 25, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The organisation said the airstrike, which also hit a civil defence unit, had left the hospital so badly damaged it was barely operational. The nearest working maternity unit is now about 70 miles away, according to Reuters.
Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Syria director, described the bombing as a “shameful act, whether it was done intentionally or because due care was not taken to avoid civilian areas”.
She added: “There is no excuse, and unfortunately this is only the latest in a series of strikes on health facilities in Syria. We condemn these attacks, which are illegal under international law, in the strongest possible terms. We need an immediate ceasefire across Syria and an end to the appalling bombing of medical facilities.”
Save the Children shared a video on Twitter of wreckage on a street which it said showed the aftermath.
The charity had already warned that the battle for nearby Aleppo was taking an unacceptable toll on children, who make up a third of all casualties there, according to a partner organisation still operating in the city.
Russian and government forces completely cut off access to the city this week. They have urged civilians to leave through humanitarian corridors, but there is widespread distrust among those clinging to life in the city who fear the offer of safe passage could be a ruse.
There were no reports of civilians using the corridors on Friday. “I haven’t seen any family or people trying to cross,” said Khaled Khatib, a volunteer for the Civil Defense search-and-rescue brigade, who warned anyone leaving risked being shot by snipers or detained for suspected opposition sympathies.
The UN envoy for Syria has urged Moscow to leave the creation of any humanitarian corridors to the United Nations and its partners. Aid groups have said that the children under siege are in need of urgent support.
“The situation for an estimated 100,000 children trapped under siege and bombardment in Aleppo is desperate and needs our urgent help,” said Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Syria director.
“The world cannot turn its back while children are bombed and then denied medical treatment – we need an end to the indiscriminate attacks on civilians and immediate and unfettered access for humanitarian aid.”
Overall health conditions in besieged parts of Aleppo are grim. The death rate is rising because a government blockade of rebel-held areas means the most critical patients can no longer be evacuated to Turkey, according to the NGO Shafak, which runs a network of ambulances.
The siege has so effectively starved the group of fuel supplies that they can only respond to major airstrikes now, and heavy bombardment means limb amputations and head trauma are now the most common injuries they see.
“Life in Aleppo city is becoming more like living next to an active volcano,” said Rami, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “You don’t know when you’ll be killed. It’s the first time in the last four years where we see this kind of bombardment and destruction.”
Palestinian exile and favoured Emirati middleman Mohammed Dahlan was in contact with accused cleric Fethullah Gulen, Turkish sources claim By David Hearst
The United Arab Emirates government collaborated with coup plotters in Turkey weeks before it was launched using exiled Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan as a go-between with the US-based cleric accused by Turkey of orchestrating the plot, sources close to one of Turkey’s intelligence services told Middle East Eye.
Dahlan is alleged to have transferred money to the coup plotters in Turkey in the weeks before the coup and communicated with Fethullah Gulen, the cleric alleged by Turkey to have masterminded the coup attempt, via a Palestinian businessman based in the US.
The identity of this man, who is close to Dahlan, is known to the Turkish intelligence service.
Throughout the night of the coup on 15 July, pan-Arab media based in Dubai such as Sky News Arabic and Al Arabiya reported that the coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been successful.
At one point, media outlets influenced by the Emirates claimed that Erodgan had fled the country, although there is no suggestion that the media outlets were involved in the coup.
It took the government of the UAE 16 hours - one hour after a statement by Saudi Arabia - to condemn the coup and support Erdogan as the legitimate president of Turkey.
According to sources who spoke to MEE, the UAE then took fright and launched an operation to distance itself from Dahlan.
It put out on social media that there was “anger with Dahlan”. Shortly afterwards, he was forced to leave the UAE and he is understood to be in Egypt currently.
Dahlan is a former leader of the Palestinian political party Fatah who has been exiled from Gaza and the West Bank and is considered to have close ties to Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
He is alleged to have been used as a conduit for UAE funds and communication in many operations in the Middle East.
MEE reported in May that the UAE, Jordan and Egypt had identified Dahlan as a favoured successor to current Fatah leader, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Dahlan is also linked to attempts to stoke the civil war in Libya. In a secret recording of Abbas Kamel, the then-office manager of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Kamel revealed that Dahlan, accompanied by three people, would secretly visit Libya on a private jet.
Kamel recommended that a military official allow Dahlan to leave the Libyan airport in secret. Kamel said Dahlan had already caused a problem for the Egyptian authorities because he travels “upon orders from the UAE which monitors all his movements”.
Since the failure of the coup, the Emiratis have tried to mend fences with Ankara. Theydetained two Turkish generals operating in Afghanistan who had suspected links to the coup at Dubai international airport.
Mehmet Cahit Bakir, a major general in command of the Afghanistan Turkish Task Force, and Sener Topuc, a brigadier general in command of the Train, Advise and Assist Command in Kabul, were deported back to Ankara.
They are even more fearful of a backlash in the wake of the purge Erdogan is conducting of the Turkish army.
An informed source told MEE: “They now feel that Erdogan is in full power. They do not like him personally and think of him as a man who will seek to take revenge. Once Erdogan has cleaned out the stables, they think he will then turn on those outside the country who supported the coup.”
A total of 126 army generals have been arrested in connection with the attempted coup. This represents about one third of all the generals in the Turkish armed forces.
The revelations about Dahlan’s conversations with a Palestinian businessman before the coup in the US could also increase the pressure on Washington to consider Turkey’s request for Gulen to be extradited.
Turkey’s foreign and justice ministers are set to travel in person to the US to demand the extradition of Gulen, but for that to succeed they must present a US judge with prima facieevidence to back the list of criminal charges, and proof that similar charges exist under US law.
If the charges clear that hurdle, Gulen would still be open to the defence that the charges are political in nature and that he could not be guaranteed of a fair trial in Turkey. About 2,700 judges were removed from their posts after the coup.
سلامة كيلة Link باتت كل الأقاويل تدور حول "فك ارتباط" جبهة النصرة بتنظيم القاعدة، وكل الأحلام تدور حول وهم أن يؤدي ذلك إلى انتصار الثورة. وقبل الإشارة إلى الوهم، يمكن الإشارة إلى من يريد وقف قصف المدنيين، بحجة وجود جبهة النصرة التي هي فرع تنظيم القاعدة في سورية، المعتبر دولياً تنظيماً إرهابياً. على أمل أن يؤدي فك الارتباط هذا إلى إنهاء الحجة التي يتذرّع بها كل من النظام وروسيا، على الرغم من أن هذه الذريعة لم تؤدِ، لحظةً، الى قصف جبهة النصرة، بل جرى قصف المدنيين، والجيش الحر، بمعنى أن جبهة النصرة ذريعة ليس إلا، ومن ثم لن يعدم كلاهما إيجاد ذرائع أخرى، في حال قبلتا بفك الارتباط، وهو أمر خارج التوقع. ليست الأمور بهذه السذاجة والسطحية. لكن، هناك من يعتقد جازماً أن هذه الخطوة سوف "تعزّز الثورة"، وتؤدي إلى الانتصار، حيث يتخيل جبهة النصرة في صورة المحرِّر، والجيش الزاحف نحو إسقاط النظام، لولا هذا الارتباط بتنظيم القاعدة الذي يجعله في مواجهة العالم، وليس النظام فقط، ومن ثم سيكون قادراً على النصر في حال تحرّر من "الحرب العالمية" ضده. وهذا وهمٌ ربما أسوأ من سابقه، لكنه أكثر سطحيةً وسذاجة، وربما أنه مسكون بحالة من العجز المفرط التي تفرض عليه تخيل "النصرة" جيشاً جراراً قادراً على النصر. هذه أوهام عامة ومعمّمة، وتشي بعجزٍ عميق، بات يسكن قطاعاً كبيراً من المعارضة (وربما أقول كلها). فهل كانت مشكلة "النصرة" أنها فرع لتنظيم القاعدة؟ ولماذا هي فرعٌ إذا لم تكن تتلبّس كل أفكار هذا التنظيم؟ وبالتالي، ماذا يغيّر فك ارتباطها؟ هل ستصبح جبهةً ديمقراطيةً، أو "إسلامية معتدلة"؟ أو سوف تحمل روح جيفارا، وبطولات الجيش الأحمر السوفييتي؟ أو هل ستتخلص من عناصر المخابرات السورية والعالمية التي تعشّش فيها؟ أو حتى تطلق المعتقلين من الثوار لديها؟ أو تكفّ عن قضم الكتائب المسلحة التي توضع تحت يافطة الجيش الحر، بعد أن قضمت عشراتٍ منه؟ أو توقف تطبيق أحكامها الوهابية، وشريعتها المستمدة من أكثر لحظات التاريخ العربي تأخراً وانهياراً؟ هل مشكلة جبهة النصرة في أنها فرع لتنظيم القاعدة المرفوضة دولياً، أو في ذلك كله، بغض النظر عن تلك العلاقة، وعن الموقف الدولي؟ لا أظن أن مشكلة جبهة النصرة هي في علاقتها بتنظيم القاعدة، حيث قبل تناول موقف "القوى العظمى" منها يجب ملاحظة ممارساتها على الأرض، منذ وجدت، لأن هذه الممارسات تدلّ، بشكل واضح، على مسار تخريبي للثورة، نجحت، في جزءٍ كبيرٍ منه، ومن ثم في إعطاء تبريراتٍ للقوى الدولية، لكي تقف ضد الثورة، وحتى مع النظام. بالتالي، حتى وإن أزيلت مبرّرات الموقف الدولي لن تتغيّر ممارسات الجبهة التي هي الإسهام في تدمير الثورة. هذه الممارسات التي دفعت قطاعات من الشعب السوري لكي يتظاهر ضدها، ويطالب بخروجها، وهو الأمر المستمر في معرّة النعمان، منذ اعتدت على الفرقة 13. وحدث، في مناطق أخرى عديدة. يظهر ذلك كله الرفض الشعبي لها، واعتبار أنها ضد الثورة، ويجب أن تخرج. في موقفٍ معاكسٍ لكل ما تقول به أطيافٌ من المعارضة، ومن قيادتها. وربما يؤكد ذلك مدى الانفصال الحاصل بين الثورة التي تقاتل على الأرض ومَنْ يدعي تمثيلها، ويؤكد أن هذه المعارضة لا تتلمس الظروف التي يعيشها الشعب، ولا الخطر الذي تشكله "النصرة" عليه، والذي يتلمسه هو. وبالتالي أنها تنطلق من تكتيكاتٍ ترتبط بمصالح خاصة، تفرضها "الدول الممولة". بمعنى أن هذه المعارضة ليست مع الشعب، بل مع الدول الممولة، وتخضع لسياساتها من جهة. ومن جهةٍ أخرى، تقبع في الخارج منتظرة من يُسقط النظام لكي تعود منتصرة. في هذه الأجواء، ينتج ما هو أسوأ ما ظهر منذ اندلاع الثورة. "النصرة" هي "داعش" موضوعة في "حضن الثورة".
(New York) – The Syrian-Russian joint military operation in Syria has extensively used internationally banned cluster munitions in its recent offensive, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch has documented 47 cluster munition attacks which killed and injured dozens of civilians in opposition-controlled territory across three governorates since May 27, 2016. The actual number of cluster munition attacks is most likely higher.
“Since Russia and Syria have renewed their joint air operations, we have seen a relentless use of cluster munitions,” said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “The Russian government should immediately ensure that neither its forces nor Syria’s use this inherently indiscriminate weapon.”
A large number of the documented cluster munition attacks took place north and west of the city of Aleppo, as Russian and Syrian forces tried to besiege the part of the city controlled by armed opposition groups.
Documented Cluster Munition Attacks in Syria, May 27-July 25, 2016
Cluster munition attacks in Syria May 27-July 25, 2016 for which Human Rights Watch was able to identify information on the approximate location in relation to the nearest populated area and time of attack as well as visually confirm the type of cluster munition used. [red dot] RBK-500 (AO-2.5RT/RTM), [yellow dot] RBK-500 (ShOAB-0.5), [white dot] RBK-500 (PTAB-1M), [green dot] RBK-500 (SPBE), [blue dot] 9M27K (9N210/9N235), [turquoise dot] M42/M46/M77-type DPICM
Although Russia has denied using cluster munitions in Syria, there is growing evidence that it has stockpiled cluster munitions, and has used or has directly participated in attacks with the weapon.
On July 11, at least three aircraft carried out multiple attacks on fuel trucks on the outskirts of Termanin, a village in Idlib province, killing at least 10 people, including a child, three first responders, and a local journalist, and wounding more than 30. The attacks involved cluster munitions and other weapons. According to nine local residents Human Rights Watch interviewed, all the victims were civilians.
While fuel supplies can be a legitimate target if used for military purposes, residents told Human Rights Watch that the area was considered a market for buying and selling fuel and that many civilians bought fuel there. The presence of civilians, the use of cluster munitions, which are inherently indiscriminate, and repeated strikes on the target even after first responders arrived make the attack unlawful, Human Rights Watch said.
An SU-34 fighter-ground-attack jet dropping a bomb on the outskirts of Termanin, Idlib, on July 11. The attack included use of cluster munitions. Only Russia operates the SU-34.
Two witnesses said that at least three aircraft carried out the Termanin attacks. One witness identified the aircraft as two SU-34 and one SU-24 fighter-ground-attack jets. Russia is the only country that operates SU-34s. Human Rights Watch has also reviewed video footage of an SU-34 flying in the sky and a photograph of an SU-34 dropping a bomb, both taken near the attack site at the time of the attack. Several Russian online news websites that focus on military developments also reported that Russian aircraft carried out the July 11 attacks, citing unnamed Syrian military sources. Human Rights Watch has not been able to establish whether the SU-24 was operated by Russian or Syrian forces, and which type of aircraft dropped the cluster munitions.
In another case, aircraft attacked US-backed armed opposition forces near the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq on June 16. Photographs posted on Twitter on June 19 by the forces that were attacked show cluster munition remnants, including unexploded bomblets, or submunitions. The US Defense Department claimed that Russian forces carried out the attacks. In a statement on its website, the Russian Defense Ministry appeared to acknowledge responsibility for the attack, saying that its forces had “operated within the agreed procedures and forewarned member states of the US-led coalition” about the strike.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented Russian aircraft flying near sites attacked with cluster munitions at around the time of the attack. In addition, the Conflict Intelligence Team open-source research organization has identified cluster munitions in photographs and video that Russian media and the Russian Defense Ministry took at Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria after Russia began its air campaign in Syria in September 2015.
Cluster munitions are delivered from the ground by artillery and rockets, or dropped from aircraft and contain multiple smaller submunitions. The extensive use of cluster munitions in Syria poses a threat to civilians, not just because they are inherently indiscriminate weapons, but also because their submunitions often fail to explode and threaten civilians and military personnel alike until they are cleared and destroyed. Human Rights Watch has documented the use of 13 types of cluster munitions in Syria.
Since mid-2012, Syrian government forces have used both air-dropped and ground-launched cluster munitions. Cluster munition attacks in Syria have increased significantly since Russia began its military operation on September 30, 2015. Human Rights Watchpreviously documented at least 34 cluster munition attacks by the Russian-Syrian joint operation from that date through to February 8. The Syrian Network for Human Rights hasdocumented 54 cluster munition attacks in Syria from September 30, 2015, to February 27, 2016. The number of recorded cluster munition attacks in Syria decreased in March and April, but increased again in late May.
The Syrian Archive, a platform that collects, curates and verifies visual evidence of human rights violations has collected and analyzed hundreds of videos related to cluster munition attacks in Syria since the beginning of the war.
From March 29 to June 2, two trained teams from Syria Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue volunteer group that operates in opposition-held areas, cleared 615 submunitions in the provinces of Idlib and Hama alone, a reflection of the high failure rate of some of the cluster munitions used in Syria. The group had to suspend the work because of lack of necessary equipment.
A total of 119 countries have banned cluster munitions. Although Russia and Syria are not members of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, they are still bound by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, which prohibits indiscriminate attacks. Syria and Russia should immediately stop using cluster munitions and join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The civilian harm caused by the use of cluster munitions in Syria since 2012 has attracted public outcry and widespread media coverage, and has been condemned by more than 140 countries.
There has been no evidence to indicate that the US or its coalition partners have used cluster munitions in their action against Islamic State (also known as ISIS) forces in Syria and Iraq. Syrian government forces have used cluster munitions across the country since mid-2012, while ISIS forces used cluster munition rockets in northern Syria in the second half of 2014.
Human Rights Watch is a co-founder of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the international coalition of groups working to eradicate cluster munitions, and serves as its chair. On October 1, 2015, the global campaign warned Russia against using any cluster munitions in Syria due to the “foreseeable and preventable” danger posed to civilians.
“Not only are cluster munitions harming Syrians today, unexploded submunitions can go on killing long into the future.” Solvang said. “If Vladimir Putin is serious about wanting a better future for Syria, then these weapons have no place in the battlefield.”
Just before 9 a.m. on July 11, at least three aircraft attacked an area where several fuel trucks were parked, just north of Termanin, a village in Idlib province. The aircraft hit the area with trucks at least eight times in the course of an hour, setting some of them on fire.
Local residents, medical personnel, and first responders provided Human Rights Watch with the names of 10 people killed in the attack. Human Rights Watch also reviewed photographs of some of the dead. They included at least one child, two members of Syria Civil Defense and a local first responder who rushed to the scene after the first attacks to help the wounded and extinguish the fires, and a freelance journalist for Al Jazeera.
The Akrabat hospital in Termanin provided Human Rights Watch with the names of 34 people wounded in the attack, including at least five children, who were admitted to the hospital for treatment. Local authorities published a list with the names and injuries of some of the wounded. The injuries ranged from concussions to broken bones and severe wounds requiring amputation of fingers or legs.
A volunteer from Syria Civil Defense who responded to the incident said:
There were so many corpses. Volunteers were already pulling them out. It didn’t take that long, around 20 minutes. The planes were circling, however, then came back, hitting the trucks directly with several bombs, which led to a huge fire. The volunteers brought the firetrucks closer. Then there was another raid on the same spot, a fourth and a fifth strike. Our vehicles were severely damaged and we were all injured, including two severely: I got a head concussion. Another had a shell fragment in his leg that reached the bone. Shell fragments penetrated the thigh of a third and the hand artery of another – we’re praying that it doesn’t lead to permanent paralysis because he can’t move his hand now.
Witness evidence, video footage, and a photograph indicate that at least two Russian Su-34 fighter jets carried out the attacks.
A resident from Darat Izzah, a village about five kilometers northeast of Termanin, said that he was on the road between Termanin and Darat Izzah when he saw two aircraft carrying out eight attacks on an area near Termanin. He filmed one aircraft and shared the footage with Human Rights Watch. The Darat Izzah Media Center uploaded parts of the footage to its YouTube channel at 9:37 a.m. on July 11. Human Rights Watch identified the aircraft in the video footage as an SU-34.
A second local resident said that he observed the attacks from two or three kilometers away. He said that three aircraft carried out the attacks, one SU-24 and two SU-34 fighter-ground-attack jets. He took a photograph of one of the aircraft and shared it with Human Rights Watch. It shows an SU-34 and a bomb that the aircraft has just dropped. The Darat Izzah Media Office – a different organization from the Media Center – posted a zoomed-in version of the photograph, highlighting the falling bomb, at 12:04 p.m. on July 11.
Several Russian online news websites covering military topics also said that Russian aircraft carried out the attacks, citing unnamed Syrian military sources.
Witness evidence, videos, and photographs show that at least some of the attacks were with cluster munitions. The videographer who filmed the SU-34 said that at least two of eight attacks were with cluster munitions. The cluster munition attacks were characterized by smaller explosions, some of which continued after the actual attack, he said. Three Syria Civil Defense volunteers who responded to the attack said that the two first attacks were with cluster munitions.
Two videos filmed from different vantage points in Termanin show dozens of near simultaneous small explosions, which are characteristic of a cluster munition attack. The Termanin News Network uploaded one of them to its Facebook page at 3:53 p.m. on July 11. A Termanin resident shared the second video directly with Human Rights Watch. Metadata and information from those who filmed the videos indicate that the attack took place at 9:02 a.m. on July 11.
Photographs and videos taken at the site after the attack show remnants and dozens of unexploded fragmentation submunitions that Human Rights Watch has identified as belonging to RBK-500 AO-2.5RT/RTM cluster bombs.
Videos showing some of the attacks and craters at the attack site indicate that the aircraft also dropped unitary bombs. Evidence from local residents and first responders indicate that many of the casualties were due to unitary bombs.
While fuel supplies can be a legitimate target if used for military purposes, local residents told Human Rights Watch that the area was considered a market for buying and selling fuel. They said that the trucks collect fuel from territory controlled by ISIS and then sell it to several parties, including hospitals, local councils, bakeries, and other trucks that resell the fuel in other opposition-controlled territory. Buyers also include armed groups, they said. Local residents said that the trucks were owned and operated by civilians, and although the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham control the town, they said that there was no military presence in the targeted area.
Other Recent Cluster Munition Attacks Syria Civil Defense, local human rights organizations, opposition-affiliated media activists, opposition groups, and others have reported more than 150 cluster munition attacks in at least five provinces in Syria since May 27. Poor communication and the intensive aerial bombardment in many places have made it difficult to verify many of the reports.
The table below lists 47 incidents in which the reports contained information about the approximate location, date, and either photographs or video footage of unexploded submunitions or cluster munition remnants that allowed Human Rights Watch to identify the type of weapon used. In most cases, reports from Syria Civil Defense or interviews with local residents corroborated the incidents.
The number of people killed is based on lists of names of those confirmed dead by medical personnel or other sources on the ground. In some cases, cluster munitions were used with other weapons, making it difficult to determine how many casualties were due to cluster munitions and how many to other weapons.
The cluster munition attacks listed all struck opposition-controlled territory. On July 8, photographs emerged showing cargo and tail sections of Uragan 9M27K-series cluster munition rockets that appeared to have struck government-controlled Aleppo. But local residents told Human Rights Watch that they did not hear multiple explosions, and that they had not found unexploded submunitions or other cluster munition remnants. Human Rights Watch has therefore not included the incident in the table below. Opposition armed groups are not known to have 9M27K-series rockets or their launchers. Human Rights Watch is still investigating the attack.
Documented Cluster Munition Attacks, May 27-July 25, 2016
