(UNICEF) – A further escalation of fighting in Idlib, northwestern Syria, will put the lives of more than 1 million children at imminent risk, UNICEF said today. “Thousands of children in Idlib have been forced to leave their homes multiple times and are now living in overcrowded makeshift shelters, with food, water and medicine in dangerously short […]
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(HRW) – Islamic State (also known as ISIS) fighters are holding at least 27 people hostage, including at least 16 children, in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. Local residents say that ISIS is holding the hostages in the eastern region of the Sweida desert and hoping to use them as leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government […]
(OSRSG-CAAC) – The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent escalation of violence affecting children in several conflicts around the world. “Children have been directly targeted by belligerents. They were also collateral victims of despicable acts of war,” said Ms. Gamba. “We cannot […]
(Al Jazeera) – An explosion flattened a residential building in Syria‘s war-torn northwest, killing at least 36 people including 12 children. The blast brought down the six-storey building in the town of Sarmada, 350km north of the capital Damascus, close to the Turkish border. The White Helmets rescue group, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, described the […]
(Amnesty International) – After Amnesty International research prompted the US-led military Coalition to admit to killing dozens of civilians in its Raqqa offensive, the Coalition must urgently launch thorough, independent investigations to uncover the full scale of civilian deaths and compensate the victims and survivors. On 26 July the Coalition acknowledged that its aerial bombardments between June and […]
(Human Rights Watch) – The People’s Protection Units (YPG), the largest member of the Syrian Democratic Forces military alliance in northeast Syria, has been recruiting children, including girls, and using some in hostilities despite pledges to stop the practice, Human Rights Watch said today. Recent data from the United Nations showed a disturbingly high increase in […]
(Amnesty International) – Turkish forces are giving Syrian armed groups free rein to commit serious human rights abuses against civilians in the northern city of Afrin, Amnesty International said today, following an in-depth investigation into life under the Turkish military occupation. Research released today reveals that residents in Afrin are enduring a wide range of violations, […]
(CNN) – The United Nations has verified 7,000 cases of children either killed or maimed in Syria’s seven-year war, but says unverified reports puts the number “way beyond 20,000.” This year has been particularly woeful for Syria’s children as violations against them rise significantly, according to a UN monitoring body, which has verified more than 1,200 such […]
(Reuters) – Islamic State militants killed more than 200 people in a coordinated assault on a government-held area of southwestern Syria on Wednesday, local officials and a war monitor said, in the group’s deadliest attack in the country for years. Jihadist fighters stormed several villages and staged suicide blasts in the provincial capital Sweida, near one […]
(Amnesty International) – The US-led Coalition’s flurry of responses rejecting the findings of a recent Amnesty International report on the devastation wrought by their aerial bombardment of Raqqa last year demonstrates how deeply in denial they are about the large number of civilians killed and injured by Coalition strikes, the organization said today. Since the publication of “War of […]
