Over the previous week, some 35,000-40,000 people were evacuated from the last rebel-held district of Aleppo, as the city fully came under government control for the first time in years. Living in the war-torn city clearly wasn’t easy, and a lot didn’t escape unscathed.
That’s providing a big problem for medical services and aid workers in the Idlib Province, the al-Qaeda-dominated province where the people were shipped, as they had to absorb not just tens of thousands of people, but have thousands of new wounded and sick that need treatment.
Doctors report a lot of people with untreated shrapnel injuries, and a lot of people suffering from malnutrition from living under siege for so long. Some 630 people have been identified as having sustained “life-threatening injuries.” That’s a lot more people than the Idlib aid workers were ready for.
The last really big non-ISIS territory still under rebel control, Idlib has been the go-to evacuation site for rebels in Syria when they lose territory. This has given the region a substantial stockpile of rebel fighters of different factions, but is likely to eventually make it a target, meaning civilians who fled into the area may find themselves in the line of fire again at some point.
The people who went to Idlib from elsewhere weren’t forced to do so. In every case they are given the choice of going there or remaining in an area liberated by the army from the terrorists. By choosing to accompany the terrorists they’ve chosen their own fate and deserve no consideration.
If they are civilian non-combatants, it is a war crime to attack them wherever they choose to go.