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. Amnesty said on the contrary that across the suspected Russian bombings it had analysed, 16 civilians had been killed for every rebel fighter successfully targeted.
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“They must halt all use of cluster munitions and stop dropping unguided bombs on civilian areas”.
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Amnesty gave one such example, the BBC reports, of a Russian warplane firing three missiles into a busy public market in the Idlib province on 29 November. “Such attacks can be characterized as war crimes”, said program director of Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Program Philip Luther.
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“It is crucial that suspected violations are independently and impartially investigated”. Russian Federation and Syria among several nations – including the United States – that are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the bombs. “So, on those counts, we believe that it has most likely committed war crimes”, says Amnesty’s Neil Sammonds. Statements from Russia’s foreign ministry announcing “terrorist” targets hit, were compared with details from the ground about these attacks from witnesses and local activists.
In one attack on October 15, near Homs, at least 46 civilians who were sheltering in a building basement were killed, Amnesty said.
Fixed-wing military aircraft based primarily at the Hmaymim air base in Latakia governorate have since then carried out thousands of sorties across the country and attacked thousands of locations that Russian Federation has described as “terrorist” targets. “Each of those vehicles is considered a tactical unit and represents a legitimate military target”.
The research also examines the reactions of Russian authorities to the investigations.
He also denied the Russian military used cluster munitions in Syria.
According to the investigation, after reports and photos of the destroyed mosque emerged, the Russian authorities presented “a satellite image purporting to show the mosque still intact”.
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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The war in Syria which began almost five years ago has now cost more than a quarter of a million lives and displaced millions of people.
