Another brutal strike

The war in Syria has spared no one. In a horrific incident on Wednesday, approximately 35 civilians, mostly children, were killed in Syria's Idlib province after airstrikes hit a school. This marks yet another chapter in the brutal and merciless Syrian civil war. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the air raids were believed to have been carried out by Russian aircraft. Moscow has not yet taken responsibility for the air strike. "It's horrible, I hope we [Russia] were not involved,” said Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin. “It's the easiest thing for me to say no, but I'm a responsible person, so I need to see what my Ministry of Defence is going to say." Reports from the ground indicate that the school was hit by rockets as students were leaving to go home after the administration decided to wind up early as the airstrikes had started. If the attack was deliberate, one could accuse the Russians of war crimes. To the uninitiated, Idlib is controlled by an alliance of rebel groups called the Army of Conquest. The brutality of the Bashar al-Assad government, with the aid of Russian, Iranian local forces, for its indiscriminate attack on civilian areas, has been well documented. Lest we forget, the Americans have also perpetrated similar war crimes, aided and abetted by rebel fighters loyal to reactionary Islamic militant groups. Fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups intensified after a September 9 ceasefire broke down when an aid convoy was bombed in Aleppo. The international community has utterly failed to establish a modicum of stability in the country. Both Washington and Moscow continue to twiddle their thumbs, while millions suffer from crippling conditions.