The official added that USA authorities had evidence showing that some Russian airstrikes had not been “as precise” and had received “credible allegations” of Russian strikes hitting facilities such as hospitals and schools and killing or wounding innocent people.
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U.S. military is ‘secretly providing intelligence’ to Syria to help in fight
The kingdom, a key-backer of Syrian opposition groups, has repeatedly insisted on Assad’s departure. The new intelligence estimate singled out Turkey as a major impediment to Obama’s Syria policy.
Evidence also suggested Russian Federation has used internationally banned cluster munitions and unguided bombs on densely populated civilian areas, Amnesty said.
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Also, two weeks ago, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan to attend a meeting on Afghanistan. However Modi faced criticism from the main Indian opposition Congress Party as well.
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, told a news briefing in Moscow that the Amnesty report contained “fake information”.
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Barbara Perkins and her husband were hunkered down inside a closet when violent winds peeled the roof off their MS home. Despite being newly homeless, Perkins said the tragedy helped her “stop and realize what Christmas is all about”.
“We familiarised ourselves with the contents of this report and as usual, there is nothing concrete and nothing new published in it”, he said.
He particularly criticized the group’s claim that the Russian strikes targeted areas where there were no militants, saying Amnesty had no way of knowing that.
Amnesty, an advocacy group that documents human rights violations around the world, wrote Wednesday’s report after conducting extensive interviews with civilian witnesses to the strikes.
The human rights watchdog’s latest report exposing “Russia’s shameful failure to acknowledge civilian killings” is focused on six attacks in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces, which the NGO pinned on “suspected Russian airstrikes”.
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.
Russian armed forces appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military objective and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians. Witnesses are quoted as describing how the market became a scene of carnage in seconds.
In a report, Amnesty International highlights the “high price” Syrian civilians have paid for apparent Russian attacks in that country.
In another raid on October 20, 13 people were killed, including a physiotherapist and a nurse, when a field clinic was bombed in Sarmin.
It’s not the first time Russian airstrikes, which began over three months ago, in Syria are being criticised.
“This is yet another provocation from someone who does not like the way we counter terrorism in Syria”, Mr Ozerov said. He also denied Russian Federation is using cluster bombs.
With an operating base at Hmeymim near Latakia in western Syria, Russia is able to launch as many as 80 sorties per day. “Russia’s Ministry of Defence must be more transparent and disclose targets of their attacks in order to facilitate assessment of whether they are complying with their obligations under worldwide humanitarian law”, said Philip Luther. “The Russian government can not credibly brush away these detailed findings with a few sweeping statements”.
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Nearly 300,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, and millions of others have been displaced.
