RUSSIAN ATTACK ‘ON ISIL’ REDUCES SYRIAN FAMILY FARM TO RUBBLE
Activist says civilians in Hama province are targeted by regime, writes Omar Al Muqdad
Russia and the Syrian government claim to have intensified air and sea attacks on ISIL targets, but a human rights campaigner says some of those assaults were on civilian areas.
In one instance, the Russian defence ministry broadcast footage on YouTube on June 22 that it said showed cruise missiles being launched from a warship in the Mediterranean Sea towards an ISIL base.
Yaser Shehada posted a video on Facebook which, he claimed, was of the same attack, saying it had destroyed his family home and much of their olive tree farm.
The 30-acre spread is located in the village of Akirbat in an eastern rural part of Hama province, Mr Shehada said in his post, which included pictures of damage to the farm.
A resident of Akirbat was killed and another injured in the attack, said the 31-year-old civil engineer.
Since 2015, Mr Shehada has been collecting details of Russian and Syrian government strikes for a Turkey-based humanitarian group, Amal. He said none of the dead in recent attacks were ISIL members.
He said he was shocked by the Russian broadcast, and feared more innocent people might be killed.
“Seeing my father’s life savings that were invested in the house and farm blown in the air was painful to watch,” he said.
According to Mr Shehada, his farm and the surrounding area has no ISIL presence and the extremist group was kilometres away.
The farm’s main building, which was destroyed in the attack, had been sheltering families displaced by fighting, he said, but no one was home at the time. The two caught in the attack were far from the farm building but were struck by flying shrapnel, whick killed one of them.
According to Mr Shehada, the nearest ISIL base is at least 12 kilometres away from where the cruise missiles hit. But the attack was not the first to hit civilians in the Akirbat area.
Residents said that in the past three months, Russian missiles have been regularly striking civilian homes, farms and businesses.
Myassar, who lives in the village of Hamada-Omar, close to Akirbat, said his house was destroyed by a Russian air strike.
“They are randomly targeting [civilian] populated areas and then claim that they are targeting ISIL. That what’s been happening to us for a long time now,” the 40-year-old said.
“The Syrian regime killed my father in the name of fighting terrorism, and now the world is killing us under the same justification,” he said, adding that his father was killed by a government air raid in 2015.
Mr Shehada said: “The ISIL stronghold is easy to spot and cannot be missed from afar.
“Living in fear of being targeted by those who claim [they are fighting a] war on terror has become part of the daily life of these Syrian villagers.”
Living in fear of those who claim they are fighting a war on terror is part of daily life in these Syrian villages