Welcome to our weekly summary of Syria Deeply’s top coverage of the crisis in Syria.
Break in Siege of Deir Ezzor: Syrian troops and allied fighters breached the perimeter of a government-controlled enclave on the western edge of Deir Ezzor city, breaking the so-called Islamic State’s three-year siege.
ISIS controls most of Deir Ezzor province, including its strongholds of Mayadin and Boukamal, along the Euphrates River. Despite recent advances, roughly half of Deir Ezzor city remains under siege, with some 93,000 civilians hemmed in, according to the United Nations.
Syrian state media said a 40-truck aid convoy arrived in Deir Ezzor at a military garrison known as Brigade 137 on Thursday, carrying roughly 1,000 tons of aid, including food, medicine, school supplies and fuel for soldiers and civilians, according to the Associated Press.
Earlier, in the hours after Syrian and allied forces breached the siege, ISIS fighters carried out four suicide bombings near Brigade 137, killing a number of pro-government fighters.
Pro-Syrian government forces have been pushing toward the capital of the eastern province for months, with Russian air support. Over the past two weeks, Russian warplanes launched at least 2,600 airstrikes on ISIS positions in eastern Syria, Russian military commander Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin told media.
Battle for Raqqa: The Syrian Democratic Forces said they had taken complete control of Raqqa’s Old City and its Great Mosque in advances against ISIS last week. United States-led coalition aircraft provided support to the Arab-Kurdish alliance fighting ISIS on the ground. The SDF’s recent gains put them in control of roughly 65 percent of the embattled city, but ISIS militants still hold districts in the west and have most of their bases in central Raqqa.
Israel Strikes Syria: An Israeli airstrike hit a Syrian military position in the government-held town of Masyaf in Hama province on Thursday. The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks targeted an army base and the Scientific Studies and Research Center, which the U.S. has previously claimed is a production facility for chemical weapons.
The Syrian army said the missiles were fired from Lebanese airspace and killed two Syrian soldiers. In a statement, the army warned of the “dangerous repercussions of such hostile acts on the security and stability of the region.”
In late June, Israeli jets hit Syrian government positions in the southern province of Quneitra four times in less than a week, after mortar fire from Syria landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Sexual violence continues to be used on all sides of the Syrian conflict, but in a society that forces victims to suffer in silence, documenting instances of rape is nearly impossible and the consequences for survivors are devastating.
Thousands of internally displaced Syrians arrived in Ain al-Issa camp nearly 11 months ago, when the Syrian Democratic Forces began its anti-ISIS campaign. In the first of a two-part series, we report on the struggles of those who live in the camp in Raqqa province.
Franco-Syrian photographer Ammar Abd Rabbo discusses his experience covering two Assad presidencies and how his work changed when the Syrian war started.
After being forced to flee eastern Aleppo in December, Wissam Zarqa moved to Idlib. Although the insurgent-held province is not known as a bastion of democracy, Zarqa will always remember it as the place where he voted in his first democratic election.
Alexandra Bradford, Covers War, Conflicts and Humanitarian Issues in the Middle East
Zaher Sahloul, a physician with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), discusses the state of mental healthcare in Syria, the psychological impact of the conflict and what initiatives must be taken to address the country’s mental health crisis.
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A huge explosion sends clouds into the air after the Assad Regime carried out air and ground strikes over the de-conflict zone, in Damascus, Syria on 20 August 2017 [Ammar Al-Bushy/Anadolu Agency]
September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am
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The State of Qatar renewed today its call for the international community to bring war criminals in Syria to an international justice after an independent United Nations (UN) investigation has showed that the Syrian army used Sarin gas during its air strikes on Khan Sheikhun town last April.
The Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement that the impunity of the Syrian war criminals has contributed to the escalation of violence against the Syrian people in “a systematic way.”
The statement stressed on the importance of reaching a political resolution for the Syrian crisis based on the Geneva-1 statement on Syria as well as the UN Security Council resolutions to meet what it described as “the Syrian people’s legitimate aspirations.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) recently published a report detailing the death tolls in Syria throughout August 2017, with a total of 7,203 deaths in 2017 thus far. The total deaths included 772 civilian victims, the majority of which were at the hands of International Coalition Forces and Syrian Regime Forces.
The largest civilian causalities were at the hands of
International Coalition Forces and Syrian Regime Forces, with Russian forces distributing significantly less deaths than normal again this month, keeping to the de-escalation agreement of May 2017.
International Coalition Forces were the largest perpetrator with a total of 285 civilians, including 97 children and 58 women throughout the month of August. The second largest portion of civilian casualties were at the hands of Syrian Regime Forces, with a total of 229 civilians, including 24 women and 17 children.
The death tolls perpetrated by ISIS is also noteworthy. The report shows that ISIS killed at least 102 civilians this month, including 22 children and 13 women.
The de-escalation agreement of May 2017 is still in effect in the four established zones of the Idlib governate, nothern Homs, Eastern Ghouta and parts of Daraa and al Quneitra. In May 2017, Russia, USA and Jordan also announced a ceasefire agreement for southwestern Syria including the Daraa, Quneitra and Suwayda governates.
A surprising 69% decrease in killing at the hands of the Syrian-Russian alliance was recorded compared to last April. However, in recent months, there has been a significant increase of deaths at the hands of international coalition forces. This month, they were responsible for a total of 37% of all civilian casualties, 55% of which were women and children.
Death Tolls:
– Government forces: 229
– Russian forces: 11
– ISIS: 107
– Armed opposition factions: 13
– International Coalition forces: 285
– Other Parties: 73
– Kurdish Forces: 54
PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea on Sunday, September 3rd, carried out its sixth nuclear test. It is reported that the explosion was heralded by a 6.3- magnitude earthquake near the nuclear test site. The tremor was felt near the Chinese border in Yanji.
North Korean media releases a photo of Kim inspecting the new bomb. Photo courtesy of CNN.
The North Korean officials claimed that it has tested a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Kim Jung Un inspecting the weapon and stated that North Korea has “succeeded in making a more developed nuke.”
The South Korean officials estimated the blast to yield at between 50 to 60 kilotons. In a later report released by the South Korea’s parliamentary defense committee, the blast was as high as 100 kilotons which equates to 100,000 tons of TNT.
The regime’s sixth test is reported to be five to six times stronger than their September test. The officials estimated the fifth test to have been about 10 kilotons.
Since the test, many countries in the region have condemned North Korea and their actions. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea called the test “utterly disappointing and infuriating.” Furthermore, China strongly condemned the test and Japan asked an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. In a joint statement released from the European community, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and President Emmanuel Macron of France also condemned North Korea’s recent test.
The North Korean leader has repeatedly used American holidays to test its missiles. It is reported that the timing of the Sunday’s test was purposefully scheduled for the American Labor Day weekend. Saturday is also the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean government.
Although hydrogen bombs and atomic bombs both involve detonating nuclear energy, hydrogen bombs are more powerful due to the usage of a second stage that increases the chain reaction.
President Trump is reported to be in conversations with world leaders and relying on similar strategy his predecessors have used.
The Responsibility of Technology Companies in the Age of Digital Human Rights Documentation
Over the past few weeks, the video streaming website YouTube has removed thousands of videos and numerous channels of organizations and individuals documenting atrocities from the Syrian conflict. Although some channels and videos were restored following complaints, many significant videos are still missing. The purge is part of a Google effort to implement machine learning technology that automates the removal of videos that purportedly violate YouTube’s Community Standards. While the automated removal system has significantly decreased the number of videos that promote violence, an unintended consequence has been the loss of evidence for current and future accountability efforts in Syria. With today’s technology, social media companies can and should accommodate human rights in their systems and policies.
YouTube has not always been equated with human rights documentation. Traditionally, human rights groups used pen and paper to record testimonies from victims and witnesses in order to pursue accountability or promote justice and rights norms. Even today, interviews remain essential to this effort, but digital tools have expanded our ability to document atrocities, and to do so in real time. Now anyone with a smartphone is able to upload a video online and contribute to human rights initiatives. Social media content, however, has had its skeptics. Many prosecutors and courts have been hesitant to forego their traditional conceptualization of chain of custody and authentication in favor of open source research and case building. However, the International Criminal Court (ICC) recently issued a warrant for the arrest of Mahmoud Al-Werfalli, a Libyan militia commander who has been accused of committing dozens of murders in the Benghazi area, on the basis of seven social media videos, including one from Facebook. While the ICC is certainly not the first court to rely heavily on social media, this decision marks a momentous turning point for international justice.
The proliferation of social media has no doubt led to a watershed moment. Syria, in particular, has become a testing ground for social media documentation because of the unprecedented volume of videos recorded and uploaded by activists and citizen journalists to platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to publicize atrocities that in the past would go unreported. YouTube often retains the only version of a video available, making its removal that much more consequential.
The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) is a Syrian-led and multilaterally supported nonprofit that envisions a Syria where people live in a state defined by justice, respect for human rights, and rule of law. SJAC collects, analyzes, and preserves human rights law violations by all parties in the conflict — creating a central repository to strengthen accountability and support transitional justice and peace-building efforts. SJAC also conducts research to better understand Syrian opinions and perspectives, provides expertise and resources, conducts awareness-raising activities, and contributes to the development of locally appropriate transitional justice and accountability mechanisms. Contact us at info@syriaaccountability.org.
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