Paris – Statement by the Syrian Network for Human Rights:
 
The operation carried out by the US-led coalition forces on Thursday, February 3, 2022, which targeted a residential house consisting of two floors and a basement in the north of Atama village in the northern suburbs of Idlib, demonstrated that leaders and members of ISIS extremist organization might be deployed in many areas, including areas that have never been controlled by the organization, such as Atama village and others. We have documented dozens of occasions on which the organization took civilians as human shields and took cover among them in the areas it controlled. Raqqa city may be one of the most prominent examples of this, with SNHR highlighting the subject previously, revealing that ISIS confiscated many civilians’ homes under the pretext of the supposed “blasphemy” of their owners and the “confiscation” of their money, turning these homes into residences for its security and military leaders and living among civilians, most of whom the group referred to as infidels, while at the same time using them as human shields. ISIS has also used its own members’ families as human shields, including women and children.
 
We at the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) have documented the deaths of at least 3,048 civilians at the hands of the US-led coalition forces, including 925 children, since September 2014 up to the current date (in the last attack on the house where ISIS leader Abdullah Qardash was staying, we documented civilian casualties, including women and children; investigations are still underway to determine how this happened); many of these civilians were killed due to the US-led coalition forces’ failure to observe the principle of proportionality in international law, which is based on the attacking party’s carefully assessing the context before determining the legality or illegality of the attack. Any attack that will cause losses and damages exceeding the potential military advantage is prohibited, so a balance must always be maintained between the means, the goal, and the action results.
 
ISIS bears the responsibility of residing in civilian neighborhoods, which poses a threat to all these neighborhoods and bearing responsibility for endangering the families of its members. It should also be noted, however, that the Syrian regime, Russia, and Syrian Democratic Forces are all exploiting this situation to stigmatize entire areas as incubators for extremist organizations, in an attempt to give the appearance of being primarily concerned with combating terrorism and using this as justification for the indiscriminate or deliberately targeted bombing of residential areas, bearing in mind that the areas whose populations have been worst affected by extremist organizations have been those areas under the group’s control, whose residents have been subject to laws dating back to the most barbaric periods of the dark ages. Recently, we issued two reports on violations by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham and ISIS against Syrian society, which highlight this issue.
 

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I- Introduction
Since the US-led international coalition commenced its military intervention on Syria on 23 September 2014 to fight the terrorist group ISIL, we started to document the violations it committed against the International Humanitarian Law. SNHR has issued 9 previous reports that document different shelling incidents and massacres that were committed against civilians in the light of the evidence and information we have.

This report comes after the Russian military intervention in Syria, who supported and lined up along one of the main conflict parties, the Syrian regime and its Iranian allies. The magnitude of the crimes and violations that were committed by the Russian forces greatly exceeds that of the International coalition. The latter concentrated its attacks on ISIL stronghold, except for four attacks which targeted armed opposition and civilians. Nonetheless, most of the Russian attacks targeted civilians and regions that are under the control of armed opposition deliberately and killed 15027 civilians; which is a strike contrast to what Russian authorities claim about advocating human rights.

Even though we believe that it is not enough, International coalition forces admit to making some mistakes regarding the shelling incidents. It also conducted some investigations, nonetheless, the Russian authorities categorically deny any killing or shelling incident and falsely accuse SNHR of fabricating this information or any shelling incidents perpetrated by its ally the Syrian regime. The political administration of the international coalition forces has to pressure the military command to acknowledge all the violations it commits and conduct more transparent investigations. Denying the shelling incidents just like the Russian and Syrian regime will not change any of the facts.

As stated in previous reports, the international coalition strikes have without a doubt weakened ISIL’s power; however it was mainly focused on ISIL’s borders with the Kurdish Self Management forces, the main forces in the PYD party, aiming to overthrow ISIL and replace them with Kurdish Self Management forces. Therefore, international coalition forces are accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes that bare ethnic nature, thus its military operations raises several warnings and affects its credibility.
The fruitless Iraqi scenario is being repeated again in Syria, as we cannot fight injustice with tyranny or support oppression. On the other hand, ISIL stronghold in Palmyra and Al Qaryatayn city in Homs eastern suburbs were not targeted at all.

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I- Introduction
Since 23 September 2014, International Coalition forces joined the four major conflict parties in Syria (i.e. government forces, Kurdish forces, Extremist Islamic Groups and Armed Opposition Members). These military operations that are carried by the International Coalition are usually associated with humanitarian and materials damages and loss, as we documented earlier in previous reports. These reports documented civilian casualties, who were affected by the coalition’s shelling, and did not document the number ISIL’s victims since they do not announce their casualties’ numbers.

No organization can claim that they have secret agents inside ISIL or whether they cooperate with an ISIL member, therefore we believe that any statistics about ISIL’s casualties are counterfeit; since the documentation process involves victims’ names, pictures, background information, and details about their death. However, in certain incidents limited number of ISIL victims can be identified. It is worth mentioning that this obstacle in documenting ISIL’s victims is due to the foreign identities of their members. Syrian nationals can be reached and information about their death or injury can be verified and confirmed, not as ISIL’s foreign members.

It is noteworthy to mention that even though all our previous reports were received by relevant authorities, the US Central Command only acknowledged the death of two Syrian children due to the International Coalition shelling.

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First: The International Coalition Warplanes were Probably Behind the Bombing
Usually, the international coalition warplanes’ airstrikes are accurate and focused. The international coalition targeted six houses directly with no less than six missiles as some of these houses were targeted again after people and medical teams gathered to help the victims and wounded. Furthermore, the International coalition bombing destroyed the targeted house completely and damaged nearby houses as some of them are unstable.

Additionally, we learned from the residents of the area that government forces warplanes have stopped targeting these areas a long time ago. Ceaseless clashes between YPD forces and Daesh are taking place in that area after Daesh was eliminated from Ain Al-Arab “Koubani” city.
The residents didn’t see the warplanes but they heard its voices. They told us that the period of time between each airstrike was about 10-20 times. Also, they said that the sound was noisy which is likely because the high speed of the warplanes that were flying at a low height.

Fadel Abulghani, head of SNHR, says:
“There is no reason for the residents to accuse the international coalition if government forces were the ones behind this massacre. Government forces warplanes perpetrate many massacres everyday specifically through missiles. No one accused the international coalition of perpetrating those massacres. The allegation that Daesh killed those people and then accused the international coalition of killing them is not different than the Syrian government’s allegation that the opposition is killing its fighters in order to provoke a foreign intervention.”

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First: Geographic Location and Military Control
Ber Mahli village is located about 10 kilometers east of Sirrean town, and 35 kilometers away from Ain Al-Arab “Koubani”. The village is under Daesh’s control. However, YPG forces are trying to take over the village. It is populated by 1000 people approximately. Most of the houses are built from mud and people work in agriculture and fishery as the village is across Euphrates River.
Sirrean town which is located 10 kilometers southeast of the village of Ber Mahli

Second: Description of the Incident
On 30 April at approximately 12:00 AM, the night before Friday 1 May, 2015, the international coalition warplanes carried out six consecutive airstrikes approximately at 12 AM where it used more than one missile in some of the airstrikes that targeted Ber Mahli village, which is administratively affiliated to Sirrean city in eastern Aleppo suburbs. Some of the residents told us that nine missiles were fired in about 30 minutes. According to the residents, there are only Daesh fighters in the village but there aren’t any Daesh bases.

SNHR documentation team documented the death of 64 civilians including 31 children and 19 women. All the victims were documented by full name and age. Also, 30 others were wounded while a large number of houses were completely destroyed. It should be noted that this is a primary toll considering the difficulty to communicate with the village and the fact that most of the village residents fled after the massacre. Additionally, many people are still missing as the search for dead bodies is still going on.

Fadel Abdulghani, head of SNHR, says:
“We published many reports on the targeting of civilians by the international coalition forces. Despite all the efforts made to avoid this, this incident indicates a blatant disrespect for the lives of innocents civilians. The people responsible for this crime should be held accountable which would be a clear message to their associates and commanders.”

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Introduction:
The International Alliance forces continue the air strikes that started in September 23rd, 2014 against ISIS, on the locations, centers, and infrastructure that ISIS might benefit from, however the victims of these strikes were not just fighters, but also civilians including women and children. As we assured in many previous reports, we have documented the deaths of no less than 40 civilians, since December 14th, 2014.
In this report we will document the civilian casualties from December 14th, 2014 until February 17th, 2015. These incidents have caused the deaths of no less than 63 civilians, including 3 children and 5 women, for an overall death toll of 103 individuals including 11 women, once of which is a confirmed American woman as well as 11 children. This information has been documented by the SNHR by name, picture, date, and time.

Mr. Fadel Abdul Ghani head of SNHR says:
“Regrettably, the alliance forces central command, denies that civilian have been killed by the alliance forces, even with the previous reports that are backed with investigations including testaments, photos, videos, and victims’ names, and we are prepared to prove those claims by the victims’ families. There should be serious pursuit and investigation to hold the responsible accountable, and to restitute the people effected.”
Unfortunately, SNHR can’t record or document the deaths toll caused behind ISIS lines, and no one can claim that, except within the media propaganda, and that is because ISIS has never published the names, photos or any videos or any information about them, and there is no information source or reporters behind ISIS lines to deliver such news, photos, and account for the number of victims.
Executive Summary: December 14th, 2014 till February 17th, 2015.

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Introduction
The alliance forces’ military campaign against Daesh begun on 23 September, 2014. Consequently, Daesh evacuated most of its centers in Ar-Raqqa and Der Ezzor and redistributed its fighters where it used new centers in residential and civil areas and established military checkpoints near these centers.
Since 23 September, alliance forces’ attacks killed no less than 40 civilians including eight children and six women.
In the same period of time:
Government forces killed no less than 3273 civilians including 404 children, 327 women, and 411 victims under torture.
Daesh killed 177 civilians including nine children and two women.
Armed opposition killed 123 civilians including 35 children and 11 women.

It appears that the Syrian government took advantage of the war on Daesh to escalate its brutal attacks against the areas out of its control. The percentage of civilian victims who are killed by indiscriminate attacks exceeds always 80%.
Certainly, there are causalities among Daesh fighters. However, the faction doesn’t publish any statistics and prohibits local media activist from working. Therefore, there is no clear methodology that can be employed to learn accurately the causalities numbers among Daesh fighters which is also the case for the causalities’ numbers of the army, security forces, and mercenaries (Shabiha). Some of the media agencies use illogical statistics to obtain material gains at the expense of objectivity and credibility.

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Executive Summary
On 6 November, 2014 the international alliance warplanes carried out a number of airstrikes targeting cities located near the Syrian-Turkish Borders. The airstrikes targeted the following:
1- Four military centers for An-Nassra front in Idlib countryside – Harem city which killed two female children; one of whom was killed along with her father, who was an An-Nussra front fighter and lived in house next to the agricultural bank. Also, his wife and son were critically wounded.
2- An ammunition car in Saramda city and burned her
3- A center for Ahrar Ash-Sham movement in Idlib countryside – Babsqa village. The international alliance’s missile destroyed and burned an ammunition depot. This was the first time that the international alliance targets Ahrar Ash-Sham movement.
4- A center for An-Nussra front in Aleppo western countryside in Al-Muhandsien area. The shelling destroyed the whole building.
SNHR published on 25 October, 2014 a study on the death toll of the international alliance airstrikes which amounted to 24 victims including women and children at that time.

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The international alliance started a military campaign against ISIS on 23 September, 2014. On that day, a number of airstrikes were carried out on Ar-Raqqa. These airstrikes targeted the governorate building, At-Tala’e military camp, and the State Security branch in addition to targeting At-Tabaqa military airbase, Tal base city, and Brigade 93 in Ain Eissa town. Also, Der Ezzor was targeted where Al-Bokamal city, located near the Iraqi borders in the east, was shelled as well as some sites for An-Nussra front in Aleppo northern countryside.
Shortly after, ISIS evacuated most of its main centers in Ar-Raqqa and Der Ezzor to relocate. The faction moved to new centers that were located in residential areas and established military checkpoints nearby.
Despite the daily focused bombarding by the international alliance forces against ISIS centers, supplier roads, and oil establishments, the campaign haven’t achieved any notable results on the short run except, maybe, for the relative success in Ain Al-Arab city. Seemingly, the airstrikes weren’t enough although it was accurate and concentrated because it lacked any real coordination with real local efforts on the ground and didn’t address the basic needs of the IDPs who fled from ISIS’s territories when the airstrikes begun. The war on ISIS is progressing only from a military standpoint without achieving any legal or humanitarian results.
What is worse is that the Syrian regime took advantage of the fact that decision-makers and international media were completely focusing on the war against ISIS to recklessly escalate its attacks against the Syrian people since 23 September, 2014. In this period of time, the Syrian regime has used poison gasses three times; twice in Damascus – Joubar neighborhood and once in Damascus countryside – Harasta. Furthermore, SNHR documented the targeting of two schools, two hospitals, two markets, and three mosques by the Syrian regime. Also, the Syrian regime killed, in the same period of time, no less than 1447 civilians including 138 children and 103 women.

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Incident Details:
A warplane affiliated to the coalition forces made an airstrike on the east of Kafar-Daryan village in the northern countryside of Idlib at about 3:30 am. The strike targeted four poultry farms which were headquarters of Jabhat Al-Nusra including two stores of ammo and weapons.
After the airstrike, explosions continued in the headquarters for minutes because of exploding the stored ammo and shells in the stores. The huge pressure done by the explosion caused the collapse of a residential house of two floors near the stores, less than 100 m of it; which caused the death of 12 people, all civilians, including five children and five women.
SNHR contacted with Mr. Hasan, witness from the village, and gave us his testimony:
“On the morning and at about 3:30 am, we woke on loud explosions we’ve never heard such before, accompanied with weak sound of warplane. I went out of the house and watched explosions in the east of the city. After the explosions stop, I went there. There was a two-floor building collapsed totally, and the near poultry farms, used by Jabhat Al-Nusra as headquarters, were on fire. After about quarter an hour ambulances and civil defense squads began to arrive and get the killed and injured out. Five killed women and five killed children and two killed men were taken out in an hour, while the injuries were more than 15 people.

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