Executive Summary

During the reporting period, intense aerial bombardment continued over opposition-held areas of Aleppo, as Russian and SARG forces continued their push to retake the entire city. As a result of the intense aerial bombardment, SARG and pro-regime forces extended their control to approximately one third of the eastern opposition-held territory of the city. Members of the UN Security Council, as well as the UN Human Rights Committee, have stated their concerns about the rapid escalation of violence and the implications for the civilian population. Aerial bombardment continued in other opposition-held areas of the country, leading to extensive destruction and high civilian casualties. In areas of northern Aleppo Governorate, Turkish and Western-backed Syrian and Kurdish opposition groups continued their efforts to isolate Raqqa and expand their offensives on key ISIL- held territory. Meanwhile, newly released reports from a local Tadmor organization have documented new evidence of ongoing looting at the ancient site of Palmyra.

In Iraq, US-led Coalition Press Operations and other sources announced that airstrikes had rendered inoperable four of the five bridges spanning the Tigris River. 2 3 In the Nineveh Plains, residents of villages displaced by ISIL have begun to return home and inspect the resultant damage caused by ISIL occupation, despite the threat of remaining ISIL-planted IEDs and booby traps. Iraqi forces uncovered two more mass Yezidi gravesites, bringing the total known number of such sites to 29. As the offensive to take Mosul progresses, more evidence of cultural cleansing by ISIL militants is being discovered in recently liberated villages, particularly in areas of dense ethnic and religious minority populations. During this reporting period, more photographs from the villages of Bakhdida (Qaraqosh) and Bashiqa show deliberate destruction and vandalism of Christian and Yezidi religious sites, as well as further evidence of damage to Mar Gewargis Church in Bartella and Mar Behnam Monastery outside Mosul has been published.