An American woman in Syria has released a video appealing to United States President Donald Trump to take action against the Syrian regime, after an airstrike Monday in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib claimed scores of casualties.
“Mr Trump, please stop this. Stop this shelling. Stop the killing of these innocent people,” Rania Kisar said in an emotional video in which she is seen standing amid rubble, the aftermath of the airstrike in the city of Maarat al-Numan. “Please America. Please do something,” she said, pointing at the site of the attack before breaking into sobs.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
Kisar, who posted the video on her Facebook page, is a US citizen who runs a center for women’s empowerment in Maarat al-Numan. She has been an anti-government activist since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011.
She was inside her center when the bombs dropped nearby, breaking all her doors and windows.
“I went outside to help. I saw white smoke. I saw a big hole. I saw pieces of bodies everywhere, legs, arms,” Kisar told CNN. “We are still pulling dead bodies from the rubble. The shelling began at 9:30 (a.m.) and now it’s 4:30 in the afternoon.”
“I blame this on the apathy of the top leaders of the world … I think Mr. Trump and only Mr. Trump can stop this. It takes a strong leader and US government to stop this,” said Kisar.
Rescue workers from the White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, are seen rushing past Kisar with casualties.
At least 54 people were killed and 88 were injured on Monday from airstrikes and shelling across rebel-held areas in Northwestern Syria according to the volunteer rescue group the White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense.
The majority of the causalities were the result of four airstrikes that targeted the town of Ma’arat al Numan in Idlib province on Monday, the White Helmets said in a statement.
A White Helmets volunteer was among the killed when planes returned to strike the initial target during rescue efforts in what is called a ‘double tap attack,’ the civil defense group said. The strikes targeted the marketplace in the “busiest time “resulting in “massive destruction,” the statement said.
The White Helmets also reported that at least 23 civilians were killed in Syrian and Russian airstrikes on Idlib province and the city of Hama over the weekend.
In a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Pope Francis expressed deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Idlib. The Vatican’s envoy to Syria, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, gave Assad a letter from the Pope, in which he made a special reference to the desperate conditions of the civilian population in Idlib, according to a Vatican statement Monday.
Over the past two months. the Russian-backedSyrian regime has renewed its assault on the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib. Hundreds of civilians have been been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and tens of thousands are believed to have been displaced.
