Almost 900 attacks on Syrian civilian targets in 2017

At least 898 attacks were carried out on civilian infrastructure in Syria during 2017 according to the Syrian Human Rights Network.

The attacks were predominantly carried out by the Syrian regime forces with 431 documented incidents, and Russian forces, with 239 attacks.  

In the report issued on Monday, the SHRN said the International Coalition committed 101 attacks, while the Islamic State Group carried out 29.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly linked to al-Qaeda, carried out 9 attacks on civilian targets, in addition to 15 by other armed opposition factions, while the remaining 66 attacks were carried out by various other unnamed groups.

The targets included 170 schools, 139 hospitals and 22 refugee camps.

The report stressed that investigations showed that there are no military facilities in the areas of the attacks, and called on the Syrian regime and other perpetrators of these crimes to justify these attacks to the United Nations and Security Council.  

The report called on the UN Security Council to compel the Syrian regime to implement Resolution 2139, which condemns the targeting of civilians, and called for imposing a comprehensive arms embargo on the Syrian government.

The network also called on international States supporting armed opposition groups to cease support towards factions that are not committed to international humanitarian law.