A new investigation from Amnesty International charges that a series of Russian air strikes in Syria have killed more than 200 civilians and very few militants.
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Amnesty said that Russian bombers targeted residential areas and killed 119 civilians in five of the attacks it studied.
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Russian Federation began its aerial campaign in Syria on September 30 to support its ally President Bashar al-Assad.
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Amnesty International says Russian Federation may have committed war crimes during its military campaign in Syria.
It also documents evidence suggesting Russia’s use of internationally banned cluster munitions and of unguided bombs in populated residential areas.
It denounced Russia’s “shameful failure” to acknowledge civilian killings.
While Russia has remained silent on civilian casualties inflicted by its forces and claimed that it is attacking only “terrorist targets”, the United States has also been mum on the subject.
The group said that on 29 November at least one suspected Russian warplane fired three missiles into a busy public market in Ariha, in Idlib province.
It added that testimony by witnesses and research by human rights activists had shown that “there were no military targets in the vicinity”. But on Monday when asked about whether Russian Federation was using cluster bombs, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “conducting its operation in strict conformity with principles and norms of the global law”, the BBC reported. In others, they seem to have attacked military objectives and civilian objects without distinction, or caused disproportionate harm to civilians when striking military targets.
Amnesty International interviewed eyewitnesses and survivors of attacks as well as examining video evidence and images showing the aftermath of attacks, aided by analysis by weapons experts.
He said the report raised empty allegations “without any sort of proof” and relied on the wrong sources.
Cluster munitions are by nature indiscriminate and often leave unexploded bomblets on the ground.
The chair of Russia’s Defence and Security Committee, Viktor Ozerov, denied any civilian deaths and said Moscow had nothing to hide from the global community regarding its role in Syria. The NGO estimates that these attacks can constitute war crimes.
The Syrian conflict has killed more than 250,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes since started in March 2011.
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“We see how effectively our pilots and intelligence officers work in Syria and how effectively they coordinate their efforts”, Putin said at a Kremlin event honoring security service employees, according to the Sputnik state-run news agency.
