December 2019

The Aleppo Project has recently blogged about the multiple hospital bombing attacks that New York Times investigations proved were perpetrated by the Russian Air Force in rebel-held Idlib on at least two separate occasions this year.  A December 1 New York Times report linked Russian warplanes to attacks on civilian targets in Idlib on July 22 and August 16 that together killed 39 people and injured dozens more.  Far from being isolated incidents, the bombing and shelling of hospitals, health facilities, and clearly civilian areas, overwhelmingly perpetrated by the Assad regime and the Russian military acting on the regime’s behalf nationwide is an all too common feature of Syria’s long running conflict.  The fact that the international treaties that comprise the “law of war” explicitly prohibit attacks on hospitals, other safety zones, and civilians appears to have provided little deterrence.  On the contrary, the frequency with which the Assad regime attacks medical facilities and civilian targets demonstrates that the practice is in fact integral to its military strategy.  Through its legally questionable tactics that explicitly target civilians, the regime aims to break the will of the people and render rebel-controlled areas as ungovernable as possible.  Having achieved control of Aleppo in 2016 through similar tactics, it should surprise no one that the Assad regime returned to the same playbook in Idlib.  Nor should it surprise anyone if Idlib’s fate, once the regime regains control of it, resembles that of Aleppo.