The Blood of Civilians Trails Behind Bashar al-Assad to the Riyadh Summit
While media outlets captured images of Assad at the summit, Bashar Al-Assad’s FPV drones targeted civilian homes in the village of Taqad, west of Aleppo, injuring four civilians with varying degrees of severity, according to activist Omar al-Abdullah, based in Atarib.
Bashar al-Assad refused to board his plane at Damascus Airport until he had given orders to intensify airstrikes on the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib, ensuring the continuation of his criminal campaign against Syrians even as he prepared to deliver a speech at the Arab-Islamic Summit in Saudi Arabia. The summit was convened to discuss the ongoing Israeli war in Lebanon and Palestine.
While media outlets captured images of Assad at the summit, his suicide FPV drones targeted civilian homes in the village of Taqad, west of Aleppo, injuring four civilians with varying degrees of severity, according to activist Omar al-Abdullah, based in Atarib.
Al-Abdullah reports that the assault on Taqad is part of a 48-hour onslaught carried out by the regime’s suicide drones, artillery, and tank fire. The assault intensified following an Israeli airstrike on positions held by foreign and local militias supporting the regime in Saraqib and at a scientific research center in Aleppo.
On the morning of Saturday, November 9, 2024, Israeli fighter jets struck for the first time at sites hosting foreign and local militias allied with Assad’s forces in Saraqib, southeast of Idlib. This strike killed and injured over 20 militia members and was accompanied by a similar strike on a research center in Safira, east of Aleppo, which Assad’s forces and their allies, Hezbollah and Iran, use to develop FPV suicide drones.
What Did Israel Target, and Where Did the Syrian Regime Respond?
Activist Ali Abu al-Farouq stated that the Israeli bombing in Saraqib marked the first time such an attack hit militia groups, including Saraya al-Arin, Saraya Ashura, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps in the industrial zone south of Saraqib and the nearby village of Karatin, where they are stationed close to frontline positions with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Saraqib is of strategic importance due to its location on the M4 and M5 highways, where Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reportedly store advanced missiles in large warehouses. The city serves as a command and control center for regime forces and their allies, as well as a testing ground for FPV suicide drones, which Hezbollah has deployed in its war with Israel after testing them on civilians in northwestern Syria.
The Israeli airstrike on Safira in eastern Aleppo specifically targeted a research center used by Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guard, and Assad’s forces to assemble and develop FPV drones and Iranian missiles for Hezbollah’s ongoing conflict with Israel.
Abu al-Farouq confirmed that the death toll from the strikes exceeded 20, resonating across northwestern Syria and Aleppo province.
Assad’s Silence on Israel’s Attacks!
Barely thirty minutes after the Israeli bombardment of Saraqib and Safira, Assad’s artillery and allied militias stationed in Saraqib opened fire on the city of Sarmin, causing extensive destruction in its neighborhoods and rendering the city’s only health center inoperative. A similar assault targeted schools and residential areas in Atarib, west of Aleppo.
The Idlib Health Directorate reported on social media that on Saturday, November 9, 2024, Assad’s forces shelled the Sarmin Primary Healthcare Center, which provides hundreds of medical services to civilians. The attack represents a blatant violation of international agreements and the right of civilians to safe healthcare access.
The Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, released images showing the aftermath of artillery shelling by Assad’s forces and allies on Atarib. The attack, which occurred after midnight on Saturday, November 9, involved approximately 20 artillery shells targeting two schools—the general high school and the girls’ high school—as well as civilian homes and agricultural lands.
What Did Assad Discuss in Saudi Arabia?
Just hours before Assad’s departure for Saudi Arabia, Israeli warplanes launched high-explosive missile strikes targeting Hezbollah munitions depots in Shanshar, Homs province, cutting off the Damascus-Aleppo international highway through Homs.
Prior to the Homs strike, Israel carried out a more devastating assault on the Sayyida Zeinab area in Damascus, reportedly killing seven people and injuring others, according to the SANA news agency.
As Israel continues to target Assad’s regime and foreign militias allied with him, activist Salem Hamdoun wonders, “What will Assad say at the Arab-Islamic Summit, a meeting to discuss Israel’s war on Lebanon and Palestine, when the summit agenda makes no mention of Israel’s ongoing strikes on Syrian territories?”
How will Assad justify his position if questioned about Israel’s incursions into Syrian land without any response on his part, other than directing his artillery to commit massacres in Idlib, far from the Golan Heights and Quneitra?
Assad arrived in Saudi Arabia without mentioning Israel’s attacks on Syria, as if he were from another country. In his speech, he avoided any reference to Israel’s repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty and failed to call on Arab and Muslim leaders to take a stand against Israeli aggression on Syria.
In Saudi Arabia, Assad delivered a polished speech on Israeli massacres and human rights, all while bearing the stain of over 15,000 deaths from torture in his regime’s prisons and detention centers since March 2011, including children and women. Meanwhile, 136,000 detainees and forcibly disappeared individuals continue to suffer torture across Syria.
Assad reached Saudi Arabia, leaving behind hundreds of drug factories that, according to U.S. reports, now constitute a major revenue source for his internationally sanctioned regime. The regime’s drug trade and human rights violations are well-documented, with the world still remembering the Caesar photos and the bulldozer driver and mass grave at Tadamon as stark reminders of the brutality of someone who claims to be a human rights advocate.