In a statement on Wednesday, the Internal Security Forces Press Center stated that groups affiliated with the Damascus government are imposing a suffocating siege on the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo as part of an organized and overt crime.
The statement continued, “They are carrying out intense artillery attacks, surrounding residential areas with tanks, and posing a comprehensive threat of occupation. This criminal attempt aims to wear down and forcibly displace neighborhood residents. This systematic policy is a clear violation of all international laws and norms and reveals a mentality that uses military force and psychological pressure as tools to control civilians.”
The Internal Security Forces stated: “Following the failure of this comprehensive attack aimed at breaking the neighborhood’s resistance and subjugating the people, the groups in question escalated their crimes by abducting young people forcibly removed from Sheikh Maqsoud and using them as human shields by placing them in front of the attack lines. This barbaric practice disregards all human values. At the same time, by sending the elderly back to the besieged neighborhood, they have clearly used them as a means of pressure and attempted to establish control over civilians.”
The statement concluded: “These actions represent a dangerous and unprecedented escalation of human rights violations within the framework of a systematic strategy that combines practices such as siege, bombardment, direct threats of force, and the use of civilians as human shields, with the aim of displacing neighborhood residents and surrounding the lives of innocent civilians with daily violence.”