Assad behind civilian bomb strikes, says UN
A UNITED Nations inquiry has said it is “highly probable” that the Syrian regime and its allies carried out a series of bombings on hospitals and other civilian buildings in the war-torn country last year.
In a summary of the report published on Monday, António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said that in four of the seven cases it examined, which included the bombing of a school and a hospital, it firmly believed that President Bashar al Assad’s “government of Syria and/or its allies had carried out the airstrike”.
The UN summary added that it was “plausible” that an attack on a second hospital was carried out by the Syrian regime or its allies, while their involvement in an attack on a refugee camp in Aleppo was also “probable”.
However, the UN stopped short of directly accusing Syria’s lead ally, Russia, of carrying out the attacks.
“The refusal to explicitly name Russia as a responsible party working alongside the Syrian government ... is deeply disappointing,” said a spokesman for Human Rights Watch. The bombings were carried out between April and July 2019 in the province of Idlib and the surrounding area. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in any attacks on civilians, but war monitors say at least 70 healthcare facilities were hit by regime and Russian fire in the past year.
The failure to identify Russia was also condemned by David Miliband, the former Labour politician who now runs the International Rescue Committee.
Richard Gowan, the UN
‘The refusal to explicitly name Russia ... is deeply disappointing’
affairs director at the International Crisis Group, told The Washington Post: “On a charitable reading, this summary contains enough oblique and tentative statements confirming the Syrian government and Russians’ responsibility.
“On a less charitable reading, this is an effort to minimise offending Moscow that reflects the fact that UN officials believe continued cooperation with Russia is key to the future of humanitarian operations in Syria.”