On July 26, 2019, an air raid over Syria caused many casualties and sparked concern about why the violence was not being addressed by media outlets.

Many people have lost their lives in an air-bombing raid in Syria in the past few weeks. The raid killed 103 people in only 10 days. Michelle Bachelet, human rights advocate, blames the government for the mass bombings, condemning the “failure of leadership by the world’s most powerful nations”. Syria, as well as Syria's ally – Russia, have denied the attack on civilians, claiming they are not responsible for the violence.

UN specialist Michelle Bachelet, brought the UN’s attention to what was going on, stating that “These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident,” she added. “Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions.”

The air raids occurred over the Idlib regioni and in rural Aleppo region. Bachelet states, the areas “have experienced civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes in the past ten days alone, causing a minimum of 103 civilian deaths, including at least 26 children”. The reason Bachelet was so passionate about bringing the UN attention to the violence was because no one else was. The events happened over a 10 day span and in those ten days, little to no coverage was happening to address and possibly stop the violence. Bachelet states that she is “concerned that the continued carnage in Syria ‘is no longer on the international radar.’”

The air raids targeted a rebel-populated base, attacking “medical facilities, schools and other civilian infrastructure such as markets and bakeries”. These frequent and malicious attacks are too premeditated to be labeled as an “accident”, claims Bachelet. 

According to a statement made in the Daily Star, “The region under attack is home to some three million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country. It covers nearly all of Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces. The Idlib region is controlled by jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate.” Still, because there was such a lack of response to the air raids, no one is taking responsibility. 

The office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) issued a statement claiming the air raids were seen as the “deadliest days” in the Idlib and Aleppo regions. 

Bachelet states, “This is a failure of leadership by the world’s most powerful nations, resulting in tragedy on such a vast scale that we no longer seem to be able to relate to it at all.”

OLIVIA HAMMOND is an undergraduate at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She studies Creative Writing, with minors in Sociology/Anthropology and Marketing. She has travelled to seven different countries, most recently studying abroad this past summer in the Netherlands. She has a passion for words, traveling, and learning in any form.