UN raises alarm over Syria as opposition groups press Hama offensive

The United Nations has expressed alarm implicit spiraling unit successful Syria arsenic absorption groups proceed to conflict pro-government forces successful the cardinal state of Hama, and fighters from a US-backed, Kurdish-led conjugation conflict authorities forces successful the country’s northeast.

State quality bureau SANA said Syrian troops were warring fierce battles successful the cardinal Hama state connected Tuesday. Syrian and Russian warplanes carried retired aerial attacks successful the bluish Hama countryside, according to authorities media.

The absorption groups’ subject operations medication said they captured 14 cardinal villages and towns including Halfaya, Taybat al-Imam, Maardis and Suran. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an absorption warfare monitor, confirmed that the 4 towns were taken.

After their accelerated takeover of the metropolis of Aleppo past week, the rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), arsenic good arsenic Turkiye-backed absorption fighters, are pressing southbound towards Hama city, the country’s fourth-largest.

Last week’s battle by forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is the biggest violative for years successful a struggle which began successful 2011 and whose beforehand lines had been frozen since 2020.

Civilian casualties

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said helium was “alarmed” by the escalation successful unit and called for an contiguous halt to the fighting.

The UN quality rights bureau warned that the spiralling unit was deepening the suffering endured by millions.

“Our bureau has documented a fig of highly concerning incidents resulting successful aggregate civilian casualties, including a precocious fig of women and children, stemming from attacks by some Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and by pro-government forces,” said a spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

The hostilities are besides damaging wellness facilities, acquisition buildings, and nutrient markets, helium added.

Al Jazeera’s fact-checking bureau Sanad mapped sites successful Aleppo and Idlib deed by Russian and Syrian warplanes successful the cognition against the opposition.

These sites see aesculapian facilities, camps lodging displaced people, fashionable markets, schools and mosques.

Meanwhile, the fig of casualties from attacks by pro-government forces successful Idlib from November 27 to December 2 has risen to 81 civilians, including 34 children and 12 women, according to the Syrian Civil Defence.

Another 304 radical person been wounded, including 120 children and 78 women, it said.

The World Health Organization besides warned that the healthcare strategy successful Aleppo was “under immense strain”.

“Referral hospitals are overwhelmed with trauma cases, with thousands of injuries admitted successful the past 4 days unsocial and doctors and nurses moving astir the timepiece to prevention lives, adjacent astatine large idiosyncratic hazard to themselves and their families,” WHO’s acting typical successful Syria Christina Bethke told reporters by video from Damascus.

She said that anterior to the escalation, determination had been 42 functioning oregon partially functioning hospitals successful Aleppo – but not less than 8 “continue to run astatine minimal capacity”.

In what appeared to suggest the opening of a caller beforehand for al-Assad successful northeastern Syria, fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella radical that controls territory successful Syria’s eastbound with US support, battled with authorities troops adjacent respective villages crossed the Euphrates River from determination superior Deir Az Zor connected Tuesday, some sides said.

The SDF said aboriginal connected Tuesday that its Deir Az Zor Military Council had “become liable for protecting” 7 villages antecedently held by the Syrian army.

The Deir al-Zor Military Council comprises section Arab fighters nether the SDF, an confederation chiefly led by a Kurdish combatant group, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Syrian authorities media reported that the service and allied forces were repelling an SDF battle connected the villages, the lone Syrian authorities beingness on the eastbound slope of the Euphrates River, an country different mostly held by the SDF.

The latest surge successful warring marks the astir important crook successful years successful Syria’s war, which began aft a brutal crackdown connected a fashionable uprising successful 2011.

The unit has forced 50,000 radical to fly their homes successful caller days, the UN said connected Monday.

Source

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies