UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th May, 2019) The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is deeply concerned and investigating deadly shelling of civilian in Syria's Idlib and northern Hama, Commission of Inquiry Chair Paulo Pinheiro said in a press briefing on Thursday.
"We are extremely concerned about the current military escalation in Idlib and northern Hama. Since the beginning of this year, we have been investigating deadly attacks against civilians by the state and its allies. Additionally, we have investigated shelling by armed groups, including HTS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [terror group banned in Russia] that have resulted in deaths and injuries," Pinheiro said.
The recent attacks had forced some 150,000 people to flee their homes and could generate unprecedented human rights and humanitarian catastrophe, Pinheiro said.
He added that in Eastern Syria, in the final campaign against territorial holdings of the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia), tens of thousands of civilians, including family members of terrorist fighters, are being treated as security threats and held in dire humanitarian conditions with limited access to food and medical services.
On Tuesday, the OHCHR said that at least 27 civilians had been killed and 31 more injured since the fighting in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Idlib escalated a week ago.
The clashes in the two Syrian provinces escalated on April 29. In the 24 hours that followed five civilians were killed and 21 were injured in six different attacks in residential areas of Idlib and Hama, according to the OHCHR.
Syria has been in a state of war since 2011, with numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations fighting the Syrian armed forces to topple the government of President Bashar Assad.
