Russia denies it bombed Syrian school
UN head says attack that killed 22 students and six teachers may be war crime
Moscow has denied any involvement in bloody airstrikes on a Syrian school as its relations with the West took another hit and the European Union slapped more sanctions on its ally Damascus.
UN Secretary- General Ban Ki Moon demanded an immediate probe into Wednesday’s attack on the school in rebel- held Idlib province that he said “may amount to a war crime”.
The tensions mounted a day after the United States and Britain said they expected an assault in the next few weeks to drive Isis ( Islamic State) out of Raqqa, its de facto capital in Syria.
Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011 with peaceful protests against President Bashar al- Assad’s Government but has evolved into a complex war involving regional and international powers.
One complication has been the involvement of Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his country’s military operation supporting Syrian rebels will also target Raqqa.
Russia, whose military intervened in Syria in September last year, denied having any role in airstrikes on the school that the UN children’s agency Unicef said killed 22 students and six teachers.
“The Russian Federation has nothing to do with this terrible tragedy, with this attack,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding that Moscow demanded an immediate investigation.
Zakharova said claims Russian and Syrian warplanes had conducted the strikes were “a lie”.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, “warplanes — either Russian or Syrian — had carried out six strikes” in the Idlib provincial village of Hass, including on the school complex.
Russia’s Defence Ministry also denied any involvement.
“On Wednesday, October 26, not one Russian warplane entered that area,” spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
On a nearby front, the ministry said Syrian and Russian warplanes had not bombed the northern city of Aleppo in the past nine days.
A ceasefire meant to allow evacuations of the besieged rebelheld east of Aleppo ended last weekend, with Moscow ruling out an extension of the unilateral measure for the time being.
Idlib province is controlled by the Army of Conquest, an alliance of rebel groups and jihadists including the Fateh al- Sham Front, which changed its name from al- Nusra Front after breaking off ties with al- Qaeda earlier this year.
Syrian and Russian warplanes regularly bomb Idlib, but airstrikes have intensified in recent weeks, according to the Observatory.
Children were reportedly caught in the crossfire again yesterday, with state media saying at least six were killed and 15 wounded in rebel rocket attacks on the government- held west of Aleppo city.
The rocket fire hit two west Aleppo neighbourhoods, with one of the attacks striking a school, said the official Sana news agency.
Outside Damascus, meanwhile, a child was among eight people killed in government shelling on the rebelheld town of Douma, the Observatory said. Douma is regularly targeted by government fire, and in recent months regime forces have waged an offensive in the area, which has also been under siege since 2013.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, an AFP photographer saw medics using a defibrillator on one man, his face speckled with blood.
On a stretcher nearby, a wounded man lay with his artificial leg detached and lying on top of him, smeared with his blood.
More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began.
With nothing seemingly able to stop the bloodshed, the European Union yesterday added 10 top Syrian officials to its sanctions blacklist for the role in the “violent repression” of civilians.
“The persons . . . include high- ranking military officials and senior figures linked to the regime,” it said.
EU leaders agreed last week to increase sanctions against Assad’s regime, citing devastating attacks on Aleppo, Syria’s second city and prewar commercial hub.
Suggestions they might also sanction Russia, which has flown many of the missions against rebel- held east Aleppo, were dropped after sharp differences emerged.
The names of the 10 officials targeted Thursday are to be released at a later date.
The European Commission on Thursday said separately that attacks on schools in Syria were “totally unacceptable“, adding “those responsible should be brought to justice“. Isis ( Islamic State) militants in Iraq have rounded up thousands of villagers at gunpoint to use as human shields as they retreat toward their stronghold of Mosul, the latest brutal war tactic inflicted on civilians in areas the group controls.
Military officials and some who escaped said that the vast majority of people in more than half a dozen villages were forced to walk north toward the city as the army advanced from the south, and that those who refused were shot. Some villagers said they ran and hid in the desert to avoid being captured, sleeping out in the open for days. Others said they were taken but later managed to flee.
Villagers also described mass executions of former policemen and army officers as the militants become increasingly paranoid about spies and collaborators.
The kidnappings and killings compound fears about the plight of civilians as Iraqi forces advance on the northern city of Mosul, a prize the militants don’t appear ready to give up without a hard fight. Humanitarian organisations have said they have grave concerns that civilians are at risk of being caught in crossfire, trapped between fighting or used as human shields.
Holding civilian populations hostage is among the tactics the militants use to waylay advancing forces and complicate the United States- led airstrikes that support them. They also have set fire to oil wells and a sulfur plant south of the city, sending noxious fumes over hundreds of kilometres.
Before launching the offensive for Mosul last week, Iraqi officials estimated that as many as 1.8 million residents were still in the city, with expectations of an exodus as forces advanced.
But residents of Tulul al- Nasir, a grey, cinderblock settlement about 40km south of the city, said they were forced to flee the other way.
“They told us on the loudspeakers that whoever stays will be killed,” said Mohammed Ali, 45. They were ordered by the militants to walk about 20km north to Hamam al- Ali, a larger village that is still under Isis control.
Iraqi army Colonel Faisal Ali Abdellatif said: “When they retreat from every village, they take the civilians with them to use as human shields.”