'To the great sorrow of those he risked his life to care for, the Middle East Monitor reported on Saturday, February 18, that the Assad regime forces had executed Syrian pediatrician Mahmoud Satu two months after he was arrested while trying to leave Aleppo with his family during the evacuation of the area last December. Dr. Satu was apparently indicted and sentenced to death for treating and feeding the children of Aleppo when its eastern districts were controlled by the opposition, according to a news report by the Jordanian Assabeel newspaper on Friday.
Asabeel also cited the London-based news website The New Arab as saying that local sources in Aleppo said that another man named Ahmed As’ad was executed along with Dr. Satu. According to the sources inside Aleppo, both men were executed in the main square of the al-Sukkari neighborhood in Aleppo, the area where Dr. Satu and his family had lived. Sources close to the doctor also told the Syrian media network ElDorar AlShamia that he was arrested on December 11, 2016, when the regime raided the al-Salihin neighborhood of Aleppo.
The Assad regime and its Iran-backed Shia militias with the assistance of Russian warplanes were nearing the end of a major offensive on east Aleppo that had subjected residents in the liberated area of the city to relentless airstrikes and ground attacks for three months. Hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded as homes, schools and hospitals were targeted. Residents had also reported in mid-December that civilians in some neighborhoods were being massacred as they tried to evacuate to safer areas.
ElDorar AlShamia also said that the pediatrician and his family were captured as they were trying to leave Aleppo with the other residents. Dr. Satu had been working in field hospitals in Aleppo and was reported as having refused along with his family to be forced to leave their home and the people of their city who needed his help. For this reason, they were arrested and the good doctor was executed for “treating and feeding the children of terrorists.”
According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Dr. Satu had written this message on his Facebook page before he was arrested: “What is going on in Aleppo is heart-breaking and a savage and barbaric act which is not being done except by a dog dealing with pigs. He [Assad] forgets that God is watching.” '
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