After killing civilians, Washington condemns attacks by Assad's forces and Russia, west of Aleppo and Idlib

Yesterday, Monday, the US State Department condemned the attacks launched by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian forces in Syria, which killed a number of civilians, some of them in a field hospital in rural Aleppo.

"The United States strongly condemns the artillery attacks launched by the Bashar al-Assad regime and the Russian raids that killed civilians in western Aleppo and Idlib," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The statement added that reports spoke of artillery shelling at Al-Atareb Hospital in Aleppo, killing many patients - including a child - and wounding more than 12 medical teams.

He explained that the coordinates of this hospital have been shared with the United Nations-led anti-engagement mechanism.

"The Russian air strikes hit Idlib, near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, killing a civilian and endangering the urgent humanitarian aid access," he added.

According to the statement, Bab al-Hawa remains the only humanitarian border crossing authorized by the United Nations in Syria, and the most efficient and effective way to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to nearly 2.4 million Syrians every month.

The US State Department statement stressed that civilians, including medical personnel and medical facilities, should never be the target of military action, and this violence must stop.

And on Sunday, the Syrian regime forces bombed a hospital in the town of Atareb in the countryside of Aleppo, which is included in the de-escalation zone in the Idlib Governorate (north).

In May 2017, Turkey, Russia and Iran announced that they had reached an agreement to establish a "de-escalation zone" in Idlib, within the framework of the Astana meetings related to the Syrian issue.

In September 2018, Turkey and Russia reached an understanding attached to the de-escalation agreement, with the aim of strengthening the truce in the region.

On March 5, 2020, Turkish Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that they had reached a ceasefire agreement in Idlib, starting from the sixth of the same month.