7 killed in shelling attack in northwest Syria
The Syrian Army carried out revenge attacks on October 7 in the country’s Northwest following a deadly attack in Homs targeting them, reports Arab News.
In what were the bloodiest scenes seen on Syrian soil, over 100 people died in a drone attack on a Syrian military academy in the Western region on October 5. The explosions took place during a graduation ceremony in which both civilians and military personnel lost their lives.
Following the explosions in Homs, government forces shelled the Idlib province, killing 7 including four children.
The northwest is under the tight grip of rebels combatting the Syrian government.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that, “Seven civilians, including four children, were killed in ground bombardment by regime forces on several locations”.
In separate attacks two were killed in Aleppo – the Middle Eastern country’s largest city – and Idlib.
Idlib province and parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are controlled by Ha’yat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch.
HTS are an armed Sunni Islamist group heavily involved in the ongoing civil war which broke out in 2011 as a result of strongman, Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Over half a million people have been killed since then.
Headed by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the group’s headquarters are situated in Idlib and it is regarded as a terrorist group by the United Nations.
Back in 2020, HTS refuted accusations that they were a terrorist organisation.
The group’s Media Relations Manager, Taqi al-Din Omar told Washington based news outlet, Al-Monitor, amongst other agencies, that,“We do not consider ourselves classified (as a terrorist group) because we are in an open war with a criminal dictator regime that has committed horrific massacres and displaced three-quarters of the Syrian people, who became refugees outside (their country) or were displaced to camps in border areas. This has been happening in full view of the world, (the Syrian regime) killed over a million Syrians during the war and brought in the Russian and Iranian occupiers to abort the popular revolution in Syria,”.
ARAB NEWS
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