Amnesty International said that Russia is guilty of some the most “egregious” war crimes it has seen in decades. The non-governmental organization said Moscow’s warplanes have been deliberately targeting civilians and rescue workers in Syria over the last week.
Tirana Hassan, director of Amnesty’s crisis response program, on Sunday told Sky News the attacks are ongoing – with strikes documented on schools, hospitals and civilian homes.
Hassan said the bombing of civilian targets by Russian and Assad regime forces was a war crime. She warned there have been consistent reports of bombardments injuring and killing humanitarian workers and civilians attempting to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
Russia is consistently denying accusations of bombing civilian areas, saying that it only targets terrorist positions.
But reports from the field tell a different story. Rescue workers on the scene confirmed the assaults were happening every day, and that civilian areas were being hit by cluster and thermobaric bombs.
President Khoja condemned Russia’s latest attacks on Aleppo and its deliberate targeting of Syrian hospitals, medical facilities and schools, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Syrian territory.
In a letter to the UN Security Council sent on Friday, President Khoja said that “Russia’s attacks on Syria’s hospitals and schools were intentional and premeditated. All of the hospitals’ locations were well-known and well-documented, and their civilian character was abundantly clear to Russian authorities.”
“The decision to target Syria’s medical infrastructure, in spite of, or more accurately, because of, the vital services they provide represents a deliberate strategy on Russia’s part to destroy civilian life in opposition-held areas, and to render these areas uninhabitable. The attacks almost certainly constitute grave war crimes,” President Khoja said. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
