PURE BARBARISM
Britain accuses Putin of war crimes as children suffer in Syrian cities ‘ hit by napalm attacks’
DAZED and bloodied, these are the innocent young targets of Putin’s air assault on the Syrian city Aleppo.
As Britain last night accused the Russian president of war crimes, it was revealed that almost half the casualties pulled from the rubble in the past few days have been children.
It came as 30 rebel groups in Syria claimed government forces backed by Moscow had used napalm and chemical weapons.
In a statement, they described Russia as ‘a partner with the regime in its crimes against our people’.
Russian and Syrian jets have reportedly used phosphorous and cluster munitions – and there are fears Russia has deployed a weapon that sucks oxygen out of the air.
Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, said yesterday that Moscow had lied to the UN Security Council about its conduct in Syria, adding: ‘ What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism.’
British ambassador Matthew Rycroft told a meeting of the council in New York: ‘After five years of conflict, you might think the regime has had its fill of barbarity – that its sick bloodlust against its own people has finally run its course. But this weekend, the regime and Russia have instead unleashed a new hell on Aleppo.’
He said Russia was ‘ partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes’, adding: ‘The incendiary munitions that are dropping on Aleppo are indiscriminate and a clear breach of international law – the barrel-busting bombs that are falling from the skies likewise.’
When the Syrian ambassador was called to speak in the debate, about the latest offensive against Aleppo by President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, Mr Rycroft joined his French and US counterparts in storming out.
UN secretary-general Ban Kimoon said bombs being dropped on Aleppo were ‘demolishing ordinary people looking for any last refuge of safety’.
The accusations came as Boris Johnson declared Russia may have committed a war crime if it was behind an attack on an aid convoy near Aleppo. The Foreign Secre- tary said it was right to ask whether Kremlin forces deliberately targeted civilians in last Monday’s air strike, in which 20 people died.
Russia has denied responsibility, blaming rebel shelling or a US drone. But Mr Johnson told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday that Vladimir Putin was ‘not only handing Assad the revolver – he is in some instances actually firing the revolver himself’.
He added: ‘We should be looking at whether or not that targeting is done in the knowledge that those are wholly innocent civilian targets. That is a war crime.’ Mr Johnson also said Russia was ‘guilty of protracting’ the war in Syria and of ‘making it far more hideous’.
As a Syrian government offensive on Aleppo entered its fourth day, residents described the worst violence since hostilities began. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 23 civilians had been killed by nightfall and said it expects the toll to rise.
Ibrahim Alhaj, of the Syrian Civil Defence search and rescue outfit, said hospitals and rescuers have documented 43 deaths so far.
Survivors told of a bombing onslaught that destroyed emer- gency medical clinics and left large areas without mains water.
Pictures emerged earlier this month appearing to show a Russian TOS- 1A multiple rocket launcher targeting the outskirts of the city. The launcher – dubbed the Blazing Sun – can fire 24-rocket fusillades which cause chemical explosions designed to suck up oxygen, collapsing the lungs of anyone in the area and suffocating them.
A US military source told The Sunday Times its use in a civilian area could breach the Geneva conventions. The former artillery officer, now a foreign policy adviser in Washington, said: ‘If the Russians are using this weapon, it could constitute a war crime.
‘The TOS-1A is a devastating and indiscriminate weapon. It is much more powerful than a conventional warhead, sucking out oxygen to create a vacuum. It literally sucks the life out of people … This underlines why pursuing a peace treaty with Putin or Assad is naive folly.’
A diplomatic source described the rocket system as ‘one step down from a nuclear weapon’.
Deyaa al-Absei, an aid worker in Aleppo, said Russian jets were constantly overhead, adding: ‘They are targeting everything … the last three days is the worst we’ve ever had.’
Humanitarian workers in the east of the city told Save the Children that around half of the casualties they are pulling from the rubble are children.
‘Indiscriminate weapon’