Destruction and displacement amid increased aerial and ground shelling on Jisr al-Shughur and Latakia Mountains
Idlib – North-Press Agency
Baraa Darwish
Syrian government forces continued targeting the de-escalation zones northwest of Syria, despite the drop in the frequency of shelling over the previous weeks.
On Monday morning, North-Press monitored an aerial targeting with barrel bombs on the town of Kabanah town in Al-Akrad Mountain, in the northeastern countryside of Latakia, considered as one of the most heavily fortified areas by the armed opposition groups.
While in the last 24 hours, the Syrian government forces have increased artillery shelling, missiles and airstrikes on areas of Al-Akrad and Turkman Mountains, and the connected areas in the western countryside of Idlib.
While the escalation caused deaths, injuries and further destruction to the infrastructure, as well as damage to orchards, which contain thousands of trees, the main and only source of income to the people of the region.
The head of the Civil Defense Center in the town of Bidama, Hossam Zlito told North-Press “The shelling didn’t stop, as the escalation increased through targeting the western countryside of Jisr al-Shughur, especially the towns of Bidama and al-Najeya and the village of Maraand, in addition to some other farms”.
He pointed out: “The main public and sub-roads were subjected to bombing by regime forces stationed in Al-Akrad and Turkman Mountains in the countryside of Latakia”.
He also added that the targeting “is carried out with heavy missiles, resulting in injuries in different age groups and damage to private and public properties, with fires in the agricultural fields and orchards, which are the only source of income for the people of the region”.
Suhaib Hassoun, a resident of Bidama town, said that many residents were displaced as a result of the bombardment on villages and towns of al-Najeya, al-Za’iniya, Maraand, and Kinda”.
While Jummah al-Ahmad, a media activist from al-Za’iniya village said: “The shelling is carried out on a daily basis on safe civilians” by the government forces on the villages west of Jisr al-Shughur and the northeastern areas of Latakia.
Moreover, medical and field sources also confirmed to North-Press that the bombardment caused dozens of civilian casualties, while hundreds of families have fled to areas close to the Syrian-Turkish borders, accusing the Syrian government forces of “waging war against the local citizens”.
Mustafa Saijari, an official of the political office in Al-Mu’tasim Brigade, an opposition armed militia, told an Arab newspaper that the “Continued escalation since the past April in northern Syria is an undeclared Russian-Turkish war, and the battles of the opposition groups have become directly against Russia”.
While the US President Donald Trump announced at a press conference at the end of the 20th summit in Japanese Osaka, that he had asked the Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease the military campaign in Syria’s Idlib, pointing out that “Despite the presence of some 30,000 terrorists in Idlib, it is important to spare the civilians from the fighting”.