Market raid kills 53: group
CAIRO: At least 53 people had been killed in air raids on a market in a northern Syrian town that is part of a so-called de-escalation zone, a monitoring group said yesterday.
The market in rebel-held Attareb was hit by at least three raids, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that it was not clear if they were carried out by Syrian or allied Russian warplanes.
Local activists posted pictures of massive damage and of dead people. Five children were among the dead, according to the Observatory.
“De-escalation zones” were set up earlier this year under a deal signed by Syrian government allies Russia and Iran, and Turkey, one of the Syrian opposition’s main backers. They were supposed to create safe havens for civilians.
The market raid came hours after Amnesty International said the Syrian government’s tactics, including sieges, killings and forced displacement, were crimes against humanity.
In a report, titled “We leave or we die”, the group said such actions were conducted by the Syrian government between August last year and March this year in six regions near Damascus as well as in the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Homs. – ANA-DPA