Aleppo’s Eastern Neighborhoods Passages will have the same Outcome as Passages in Old Homs
On 27 July, government forces and its allies, on one side, and Syrian Democratic Forces (Primarily consists of Democratic Union Party forces – a branch for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) on the other side have completely enclosed the neighborhoods of Eastern Aleppo after government forces took control of Bani Zaid neighborhood while the Syrian Democratic Forces seized control of Al Sakan Al Shababi neighborhood. Since the beginning of July, Aleppo has fallen under a tightened siege as the Syrian regime and the Syrian Democratic Forces (in Al-Shaikh Maqsoud neighborhood) have taken absolute control of Castillo Road. We talkie about the siege of approximately 300,000 civilians in a previous report.
On 28 July, one day after the eastern neighborhoods were enclosed, Russia, followed by the Syrian regime, announced that four passages would be opened describing them as “Safe humanitarian passages” so that residents can flee the neighborhoods of Eastern Aleppo; three passages for civilians and one for surrendering fighters. On 28 July Syrian and Russian warplanes dropped brochures including maps for the passages (Bostan Al Qaser neighborhood passage – Al Masharqa, Al Shamali circle passage – Al Layrmoun circle, Al Shaikh Saed mosque passage – Al Hader neighborhood, Saif Al Dawla garden passage – Damascus-Aleppo highway). These passages haven’t opened yet and therefore civilians haven’t left yet.
SNHR warns civilians in the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo and deems these passages a major deceit for the following reasons:
First: Russian and Syrian forces have no regard, even in the slightest, for the lives of the Syrian civilians as their warplanes and weapons kill those civilians everyday in these neighborhoods without any regard for their existence. SNHR recorded the killing of 183 civilians including 48 children and 20 women in Aleppo’s sieged eastern neighborhoods in July alone as follows:
– 139 civilians including 35 children and 14 women killed by government forces.
– 44 civilians including 13 children and six women killed by Russian forces.
The number of crimes that qualify as war crimes are too much to be counted. Whoever cares for the safety of civilians should stop killing them first.