Car bombings in Sayyidah Zaynab, June 11th, 2016

On instructions from my Government, I should like to convey to you information regarding the barbaric terrorist car bombings that took place in Sayyidah Zaynab city, in Rif Dimashq governorate, in the morning of 11 June 2016, and the terrorist acts being committed in other parts of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Armed terrorist groups carried out two bombings in Sayyidah Zaynab city, in Rif Dimashq governorate. In the first attack, a car bomb went off in a vegetable market on Tin Street teeming with shoppers, while in the second attack a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the midst of civilians gathered near the Dhiyabiyah entrance to the city. The attacks killed eight people and injured a dozen others, the majority of whom were women, elderly persons and children, most of them seriously.

Armed terrorist groups also continued their attacks on Aleppo, indiscriminately raining down rockets, shells, “hell cannon” missiles and sniper fire on peaceful neighbourhoods of the city. Those attacks constitute a fresh violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement by these criminal groups, which are supported by the governing regimes in Ankara, Riyadh and Doha. On 10 June, 6 civilians were killed and more than 30 were injured, including women, children and elderly persons, following indiscriminate bombardments carried out by the Nusrah Front, Ahrar al-Sham and other armed terrorist groups. On 9 June, the terrorists also attacked the Shaykh Maqsud, Maydan, Muhafazah and Zahra’ neighbourhoods in Aleppo, Nayrab Airport and several villages in Aleppo governorate, with 54 people, including women and children, losing their lives and 93 others sustaining injuries of varying degrees of severity.

Terrorists belonging to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also savagely massacred innocent civilians in the village of Ghandurah, located east of Manbij, in the countryside of Aleppo governorate, killing more than 40 civilians, including children, women and elderly persons.

The terrorist bombings in Sayyidah Zaynab and the indiscriminate attacks which have been ongoing for close to a month in civilian neighbourhoods of Aleppo and the surrounding area, along with the massacres being committed by ISIL, the Nusrah Front and other terrorist groups allied or affiliated with them are all part of the criminal, thuggish and fascist policies devised by the Erdoğan regime in Ankara and executed by its terrorist proxies in Syria, with financial and military support from that regime and the regimes in Doha and Riyadh. Such support is in line with the stated policies of those regimes to use their terrorist proxies to escalate the situation in all areas of Syria, in order to undermine security and stability throughout the country, spread panic and fear among innocent civilians during the month of Ramadan, and undermine the cessation of hostilities arrangement. They do all this in an attempt to boost the morale of the terrorists of ISIL, the Nusrah Front, the Army of Conquest, the Army of Islam and other criminal gangs who are rapidly wilting in the face of the daily victories posted by the Syrian Arab Army, with the support of the true friends and allies of Syria.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that all these terrorist massacres and crimes will not deter it from continuing to fulfil its duty to combat terrorism and provide peace and security to its people, and strive to bring about a political solution to the Syrian crisis through an intra-Syrian dialogue under Syrian leadership, leading to the elimination of terrorism and the expulsion of terrorist groups from Syria, the reconstruction of facilities destroyed by the terrorists and their partners, financial backers and supporters, and the building of a country in which peace, love and tolerance prevail.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls on the Security Council and the Secretary-General to condemn these terrorist crimes, just as they have condemned terrorist crimes committed in several countries around the world. The Government also calls on the Security Council to stop applying double standards with regard to counter-terrorism, because terrorism is terrorism. There is no such thing as “moderate” terrorism or “non-moderate” terrorism. In Syria, taking up arms against the State or for the purpose of killing innocent people, spreading panic among the population or destroying economic and civic infrastructure is considered terrorism.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls on the Security Council to fulfil its responsibility to maintain international peace and security by taking preventive and punitive measures immediately in respect of those regimes and States that support and fund terrorism, particularly the governing regimes in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Council must prevent those States from continuing to fund terrorism and to undermine international security and peace, and must compel them to implement fully the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015).

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued as a document of the Security Council.