Moscow denies involvement in attack on Idlib school. EU issues fresh sanctions on Syria
Six teachers and 22 students died in the air raid. Moscow - and the UN secretary general - call for immediate and thorough investigation. Three children killed, 14 people injured in Aleppo hit by rockets fired by insurgents. Europe imposes new sanctions on 10 leading figures linked to the Damascus government.
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Moscow denies any involvement in the airstrike in Idlib province, which caused at least 28 deaths including 22 children and six teachers.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the immediate opening of a thorough investigation to shed light on the dynamics and identify responsibilities. The area is controlled by the rebels; the United Nations Secretary General says the raid "could constitute a war crime."
"The Russian Federation has nothing to do with this terrible tragedy, with this attack," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova yesterday, adding that Moscow calls for an "immediate investigation" on the matter. The senior Russian official also called the claims of Russian or Syrian involvement in the operation a "lie".
The charges of Russian or Syrian responsibility in the attack on the village of Haas School was made by the London based NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources on the ground. The organization, according to the critics too close to the West (and the rebels), says at least "six Russian or Syrian air raids took place, no one knows for sure."
The Moscow government vehemently denies any involvement in the affair.
Meanwhile, three children have died and 14 others were wounded in the area west of Aleppo yesterday, controlled by the government in Damascus. Local sources said that rockets were fired from the eastern sector of the northern metropolis, in the hands of the rebels and militiamen jihadists, that hit a school in the west.
The news was reported by the official Syrian news agency Sana, describing a of "terrorist" attack against a state school in Shahba district, on the western outskirts of a town divided since 2012 into two sectors. The rebels regularly fire rockets, more or less homemade, into west Aleppo, where the majority of the population (1.2 million people, compared with 250 thousand in the sector east), frequently killing civilians.
Civilian casualties were also recorded in the vicinity of Damascus, with the death of at least eight people in a rocket attack operated by government forces in Douma, in the eastern region of Ghouta. It is an area under Syrian regular army siege since 2013.
The war in Syria first flared up in March 2011 as street protests against President Bashar al-Assa. In five years it has resulted in more than at least 300 thousand deaths (430 thousand according to other sources) and millions of refugees. Western nations have repeatedly issued sanctions against the government leaders and prominent Syrian figures.
Yesterday the European Union added another 10 senior Syrian officials to the blacklist for participating in various ways in the "violent repression" of the civilian population. These would include "prominent military and the regime linked leaders."
Last week, the heads of State and Government of the EU agreed on the increase of sanctions against President Assad's regime; citing the war for control of Aleppo, the former economic and commercial capital of the country.
Last week the European Union was ready to threaten Syria’s chief ally Russia with sanctions. However, the intervention of the Italian government curbed - for the moment - the possibility of sanctions wanted by France and Germany. A further sign of tension on going between Moscow and the Western bloc, which seems grow harsher as time goes on and the conflict worsens.
The idea of an offensive against Raqqa, a stronghold of the Islamic State in Syria, is also being touted following the model of what is happening in Mosul in Iraq. However, this could complicate the situation on the ground even more given the direct involvement of foreign powers (see Turkey) to defend their interests. "Now we are moving towards al-Bab" said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The next goals are Manbij - in the hands of the Syrian Kurdish militias - and Raqqa.
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