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10 Syria civilians killed in government attack on rebel-held village – JURIST

Syria’s opposition government said Saturday that government forces shelled the northwestern village of Qaqfin, located in Idlib, Syria. The shelling resulted in the death of ten civilians, drawing further attention to allegations of human rights violations committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government. In a press release, the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) revealed that the shelling targeted areas in Idlib, an area which is currently held by rebels. Among the areas hit was the village of Qafin. Ten civilians lost their lives during the shelling, including seven women and children. Before the attack, the civilians were engaged in harvesting olives.Two days before the attack, the SOC urged the international community to enforce the Astana process, formed under UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The 2015 resolution called for the international community to prevent any further acts of hostility targeting civilians and public infrastructure, and stresses the crucial importance of a ceasefire in Syria.Following the attack, the SOC “appeal[ed] to the UN Security Council to condemn the war crime perpetrated” on Saturday. IT further called “for decisive action through legal and political means to halt the crimes of the Assad regime and its allies.”Despite the 2015 resolution, attacks in Syria remain ongoing. The British-based war monitoring organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented at least 404 operations in Syria’s “de-escalation zone” since the start of this year. These attacks have resulted in the death of 202 civilians and 257 combatants—as of the time of Saturday’s attack. Additionally, since the war began in Syria in March 2011, approximately 6.8 million people have been internally displaced, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).The international community has recently taken some action to against Assad and his regime, beyond the 2015 resolution. On November 15, France issued arrest warrants for Assad and several other high-ranking military officials for their role in perpetrating two chemical weapons attacks in August 2013. The next day, on November 16, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an interim order directing Assad’s government to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent the torture of its own citizens.