The assault by government forces on the city of Aleppo is the culmination of months of a brutal crackdown against dissident voices, Amnesty International said in a new report published yesterday.
The new report All-Out Repression is based on first-hand field investigations by Amnesty International in Aleppo city at the end of May.
It documents how security forces and the notorious government-backed shabiha militias routinely used live fire against peaceful demonstrations, killing and injuring protesters and bystanders, including children, and how they hunted down the wounded, medics who treated them, and opposition activists.
“The current onslaught on the city of Aleppo – which puts civilians even more at grave risk– is a predictable development which follows the disturbing pattern of abuses by state forces across the country,” said Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Response Adviser, who recently spent several weeks investigating abuses in northern Syr
