Asayish Reports Alleged Use of Civilians as Human Shields in Aleppo

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Internal forces.

The Media Centre of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) in Aleppo has stated that factions linked to the Syrian Interim Government are forcing abducted young men onto the front lines of their assaults and using them as human shields, in what it described as a grave breach of international laws and norms.

In a statement received by PUKMEDIA, the centre said that these factions have imposed a suffocating siege on the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, accompanied by intense shelling, the deployment of tanks to encircle residential areas, and explicit threats of a full-scale invasion. The measures, it said, are aimed at wearing down the population and forcing residents to flee.

The statement added that after their attack failed to break the neighbourhood’s resistance, the factions intensified their violations by abducting young men from Sheikh Maqsoud who had been forced to leave the area, compelling them to the front lines as human shields. At the same time, elderly residents are reportedly being sent back into the besieged neighbourhood in an attempt to use them as leverage against civilians.

The Media Centre stressed that these actions constitute a dangerous and unprecedented escalation in human rights abuses, noting that the combined use of siege, bombardment, threats of force and civilians as human shields reflects a systematic policy aimed at enforcing displacement and inflicting daily suffering on innocent civilians.


PUKMEDIA