War crimes committed by Russia and Assad gov’t in Syria, say Amnesty International
Rights group Amnesty International on Monday said that, over the past year, Russian-backed Syrian government forces in northwest Syria may have committed acts that amount to “war crimes”.
“Evidence shows that, in their entirety, the documented attacks by Syrian and Russian government forces entailed a myriad of serious violations of international humanitarian law. These violations amount to war crimes”, the report said.
The UK-based group documented 18 attacks on civilian infrastructures, including medical facilities and schools, which took place between May 5, 2019, and February 25, 2020, in Idlib, Hama, and western Aleppo. The majority of the attacks occurred in January and February this year, during the government’s latest offensive aimed at capturing Syria’s last rebel stronghold, the Idlib province.
Amnesty also blamed the Syrian government for an attack using internationally banned cluster munitions on a school that killed three people in Idlib city on February 25.
On March 5, after an escalation in violence, Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria’s war, agreed a ceasefire in Idlib. However, hundreds of thousands remain displaced and highly dependent on aid amid the coronavirus pandemic. The report also highlighted threats to international aid.
Last month, a global watchdog said that president Bashar al-Assad’s military regime likely used chemical weapons in an illegal attack in Syria in 2017.
The war in Syria started with a popular movement against al-Assad’s rule that was brutally repressed. Russia entered the civil war in 2015, aiding Assad in what it insisted was an anti-terrorist campaign against Islamic State, and what Western powers have seen as an attempt to root out opposition to al-Assad’s rule.
More than 400,000 people were killed and about half of the country’s population is displaced in the ten-year war.
Source: War crimes committed by Russia and Assad gov’t in Syria, say Amnesty International | New Europe