In Homs, western Syria, a drone strike by an unknown assailant killed and injured cadets, their families, and many others during a military academy graduation ceremony on October 5. The Syrian army and the Russian military, which has supported President Bashar al-Assad, have retaliated by attacking at least 2,300 locations in the rebel-held northwest, including schools, hospitals, markets and homes. It also included camps for displaced Syrians. Approximately 120,000 people (many of whom had already been forced to evacuate several times, including last February’s devastating earthquake) have been evacuated, and at least 500 people have been evacuated in the cases that our committee has been tracking since October alone. Civilians were injured or killed.
The weapons also include internationally banned cluster munitions, continuing a destructive pattern that our committee has been documenting since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. In the past, these revelations have caused widespread outrage. What’s the difference now? The world’s attention is elsewhere.
ISIS has also stepped up its deadly operations inside Syria, attacking both civilian and military targets and continuing to demonstrate its operational capabilities and extremist ideology.
Meanwhile, in the northeast, Turkish forces are accelerating operations against the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Syrian Democratic Forces is a rebel group that claims to be linked to terrorist activities within Turkey. The same rebels are also fighting local tribes in eastern Syria’s largest city, Deir al-Zour, over years of failure by the Kurdish-led local government to provide essential services and ensure fundamental rights. Conflicts are fueled by grievances. Subsequent civilian deaths have not been counted.
And most worryingly, heightened regional tensions resulting from the Gaza onslaught have led to increased attacks on Syrian territory by Israeli and Iranian militias. US military bases in Syria have been attacked more than 50 times by militia groups since October. Well before the Jan. 28 attack on Jordan that killed three U.S. service members, the U.S. carried out retaliatory attacks on facilities allegedly used by Iranian-linked groups, and the killings in Jordan were followed by attacks in Syria. has led to new US retaliatory attacks. , Iraq and Yemen, raising concerns of broader conflict. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes, ostensibly targeting Iranian-related assets, have repeatedly crippled Syria’s civilian airports, which are urgently needed to transport humanitarian aid.