UN decries civilian deaths
GENEVA: The UN human rights chief called on all air forces operating in Syria to take greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians in their escalating air strikes especially in the north-east against Islamic State.
Air strikes since Thursday evening have killed more than 100 people including children and other family members of IS fighters in al-Mayadin, a town held by jihadists, according to war monitors.
“The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries caused by air strikes in Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said yesterday.
Air strikes in mid-May killed nearly two dozen farmworkers, most of them women, in a village in eastern Raqqa and at least 59 civilians in residential areas of Deir al-Zor, Zeid said.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting IS said its forces had conducted strikes near al-Mayadin this week and were assessing the results.
Zeid’s spokesperson, Rupert Colville, told a Geneva briefing yesterday: “There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria including the (US-led) coalition, mainly the coalition.
“We also understand that there are Iraqi planes as well.
“I can’t begin to identify who is responsible,” he added.
IS forces, fighting to keep their stronghold in north-east Syria, have carried out summary executions of civilians, including slitting the throats of eight men at sites of air strikes after accusing them of providing co-ordinates to the attacking planes.
“Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas,” he said.
The UN human rights office also voiced concern at credible reports that IS is preventing civilians from leaving areas under their control, noting that this violated international law.
“Unfortunately there is little doubt that IS continues constantly to kill and endanger civilians, committing war crimes without any compunction whatsoever,” Zeid said. – Reuters