A woman, identified as 70-year-old Arifa Haydar Jammou, was killed and six other people were injured on March 9, 2024, in an attack by Syrian regime artillery forces who fired shells targeting her home village of Kbashin in Sherawa subdistrict in the rural areas of Afrin city in northern rural Aleppo governorate. One of the shells hit a passenger bus as it was leaving the village, killing the woman and injuring the six other passengers, all members of the same family, three of them children. The bus was also moderately damaged in the attack. The area is under the control of Syrian National Army (SNA).
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that through this attack, regime forces have again unequivocally violated UN Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2254, both of which categorically prohibit indiscriminate attacks, as well as violating the rules of international humanitarian law on distinguishing between civilians and fighters. Such attacks aim solely to spread fear and panic among civilians, to drive them from their lands and homes, and to forcibly displace them. An estimated 6.5 million people are currently internally displaced in Syria.
The international community must put pressure on the Syrian regime and its allies to support a process of political transition. Pressure should be applied on all parties to compel them to launch such a transition within a period of no more than six months, so that millions of displaced people can be ensured a safe and stable return.
