UN calls for investigation into Syrian school attack
Six teachers and 22 children were killed in what may amount to a war crime
BEIRUT— UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Thursday for an immediate investigation of an attack on a school in Syria’s Idlib province that the UN’s children’s agency is calling one of the deadliest of its kind in the country’s six-year war.
UNICEF raised its toll for Wednesday’s attack to 28 dead, among them 22 children and six teachers.
Ban said in a statement that the attack, carried out against rebel-held territory, may amount to a war crime if found to be deliberate.
“If such horrific acts persist despite global outrage, it is largely because their authors, whether in corridors of power or in insurgent redoubts, do not fear justice. They must be proved wrong,” he said.
Witnesses said overhead jets targeted the school in the town of Hass as many as 10 times, around midday Wednesday. Opposition activists blamed the strikes on Russian and government planes.
Meanwhile, a group of Russian warships, including the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kusnetsov, reportedly refuelled of the North African coast en route to the eastern Mediterranean, the BBC reported Thursday.
Russia withdrew a request for NATO-member Spain to refuel the ships earlier this week.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Russian deployment raised concerns of more air assaults in Syria, notably in the besieged city of Aleppo.
“We are concerned and I have expressed that very clearly about the potential use of this battle group to increase Russia’s ability and to be a platform for airstrikes against Syria,” he said.
Idlib is the main Syrian opposition stronghold, though radical militant groups also have a large presence there. It has regularly been hit by Syrian and Russian warplanes as well as the U.S.-led coalition targeting Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
The Russian military denied responsibility for the school attack, calling the accusations a “sham.”
Prior to Wednesday’s attack, the deadliest assault on a school was reported in April 2014 when 30 children were killed in airstrikes that hit a school in the rebel-held part of Aleppo city, according to UNICEF.
UNICEF said it has verified at least 38 attacks on schools this year across Syria, whether in government-held areas or rebel-controlled territory, compared to 60 attacks last year.
“In general, there are one in three schools in Syria that can’t be used anymore because they were damaged or destroyed or used for military purposes or sheltering the displaced,” Touma told The Associated Press, speaking from Amman, Jordan.