Russia under a cloud of war crimes in Syria
CIVILIAN TOLL MOUNTS IN RENEWED STRIKES ON ALEPPO DISTRICTS
At least 23 civilians have been killed in renewed government air strikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said yesterday, as France and Britain’s foreign ministers raised the prospect of investigating Russia for war crimes, ahead of an emergency UN Security Council meeting about the spiralling violence in Syria.
Medical workers and local officials reported air strikes on neighbourhoods throughout Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern districts as an announced government offensive entered its fourth day.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 23 civilians had been killed by 6 pm and said it expects the toll to rise.
Ebrahim Al Haj of the Syrian Civil Defence search and rescue outfit said hospitals and rescuers have documented the deaths of 43 people so far.
Hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and medical workers are expecting many of the wounded to die from a lack of treatment, according to Mohammad Zein Khandaqani, a member of the Medical Council, which oversees medical affairs in the opposition areas. “I’ve never seen so many people dying in once place,” he said from a hospital in the city. “It’s terrifying today. In less than one hour the Russian planes have killed more than 50 people and injured more than 200.”
At the UN, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia should be investigated for war crimes following an attack on a Syrian aid convoy that claimed 20 lives, Monday.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Russia and Iran will be guilty of war crimes if they don’t pressure Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to stop escalating violence. Ayrault said an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting is a “moment of truth” for the UN. FROM THE COVER — A2, 3
Syrian and Russian warplanes again pounded rebel-held east Aleppo yesterday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worst surge in violence to hit the devastated city in years. Residents and a monitor reported heavy air raids overnight and early yesterday on the besieged east of the city, which Syria’s army has pledged to retake.
The UN Security Council was due to meet later in an emergency session to discuss the escalating violence, which UN chief Ban Ki-moon described as “chilling”.
Washington and its European allies said before the meeting that the burden was on Moscow - a key ally of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime - to save a truce that fell apart in the past week.
At least 115 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syrian and Russian bombardment of eastern Aleppo since the army on Thursday announced an operation to take it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitor said at least 19 children were among those killed in the assault, which has included missile strikes, barrel bomb attacks and artillery fire.
Residents said cluster bombs rained down on Saturday night on eastern parts of the city, where an estimated 250,000 people are living under a government siege.
“All night long they were dropping cluster bombs. I couldn’t sleep until four in the morning,” said 62-year-old Ahmad Hajar, who was out looking for bread in Al Kalasseh neighbourhood.
“Today the streets of my neighbourhood are full of unexploded cluster bombs. One person was killed when he disturbed one and it exploded,” he added. “It tore him apart... it was an awful scene.” In the nearby neighbourhood of Bab Al Nayrab, 30-year-old Emad Habush was baking bread in a small wood-burning oven outside his house.
“None of the bakeries are open any more because of the bombing and the shortages of fuel
and flour, so people have started making their own bread,” he said.
“I don’t know why the regime is bombing us in this barbaric way. We’re civilians here, we’re not carrying weapons, and we’re besieged, we have no way to escape.”
Air strikes were continuing on the eastern neighbourhoods yesterday the Observatory said, with at least 14 civilians, including two children, killed since dawn.
Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by war and roughly divided since mid-2012 between government control in the west and rebel control in the east.
The eastern portion of the city has been under near-continuous siege since mid-July, prompting food and fuel shortages.
More than 300,000 people have been killed and over half the country displaced since the war began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Successive attempts to reach a political solution have failed, and the latest bid by Moscow and Washington has virtually collapsed, despite ongoing talks to save it.