Syrian troops behind 511k civilian deaths
SYRIAN leader Bashar al-Assad’s troops and his allies have killed most of the 511,000 people who have died in the seven-year war, it was claimed yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britainbased war monitor, said about 85 per cent of the dead had been killed by government forces and allies.
Yesterday, France vowed to hit any Syrian site deploying chemical attacks against civilians.
President Emmanuel Macron, shortly before the United Nations were due to discuss Syria, said Assad ally Moscow had not done enough to help civilians.
In particular, Moscow’s troops had not allowed relief into the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.
Macron said France was ready to strike if it found “irrefutable evidence” chemical weapons had been used to kill.
He said: “The day we have, in tandem with our American partners, irrefutable proof the red line was crossed – namely, chemical weapons were used to lethal effect – we will do what the Americans did … put ourselves in position to proceed with targeted strikes.”
Syria signed a Russian-brokered deal to give up chemical weapons to avert US air strikes after a nerve gas attack killed hundreds in 2013.
Last year, the US accused Damascus of using nerve gas and launched air strikes.