20 Civilians Killed in Russian Airstrikes on Rural Idlib

Press Release

Media Department

Syrian Coalition

April 10, 2017

In a crime that is no less heinous than the crimes of the Assad regime and the Iranian militias, the Russian air force on Saturday committed a massacre claiming the lives of at least 20 civilians, including women and children, when it launched multiple airstrikes on rural Idlib.

The Russians, the Iranians, and the Assad regime are venting their anger on civilians in response the US targeting of Shaerat airbase from which the regime's warplanes took off to bomb the town of Khan Sheikhoun with chemical weapons last Tuesday.

The United States, having signaled a strong message to the regime and its allies by matching, for the first time, words with action, should not allow the Assad regime as well as its Russian and Iranian allies to continue with their revenge attacks on the Syrian people. It also should not allow its action, which was an important turning point, to become the gateway to a major escalation against the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its allies who continue to play tricks with the fate and blood of the Syrian people; show total disregard for international resolutions; and carry out the most terrible terrorist acts against defenseless civilians.

The Coalition renews calls for the formation of an international coalition of the civilized world to confront the Assad regime and its backers, work to depose it, contribute to the efforts to reach a just political solution, and continue the fight against terrorism in all its forms, including the Assad regime and its allied sectarian militias.

The Coalition stresses that the Assad regime bears full responsibility for exposing our country to various types of domination, occupation, mandate, and destruction.

May our wounded recover, our detainees be free, and our fallen heroes rest in peace.

Long live Syria and the Syrian people, free and with honor.