Washington, D.C.- Under the claims of fighting terrorists, both Russian and Syrian regime war planes struck Syria’s Idlib today. This comes of the heels of a large military buildup of Assad and his allies forces and threats to liberate the region from rebel control.
Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million people, half of whom are displaced from different parts of Syria. The region is considered a zone of de-escalation, one that is refuge to people fleeing conflict elsewhere in the country and should be safe from any kind of military attack.
IDC urges the international community, particularly the United States to prevent a Russian, Iranian, Assad attack against the region. An attack and invasion of Idlib would spark a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions and send a new, massive wave of refugees into neighboring countries, destabilizing the region further.
Assad, with Iranian and Russian help “ continues to implement a scorched earth policy as he seeks to regain control of the whole country. The result is immense human suffering, a collapsed economy, an international refugee crisis, and worst of all, half a million dead. Christians, Druze, Sunni, and Shia are all victims of a continued conflict in Syria, absent of any political solution, and terrorism will remain, threatening the future of the country and US national security” says IDC Executive Director Philippe Nassif.
The Christian population continues to dwindle in Syria as the war rages and economy continues to falter, and the survival of the population along with all other religious minorities in this ancient land is at great risk unless the international community takes a lead in bringing peace to the country and ends the daily human rights violations that plague the population of Syria.