Group: Russian strikes cross line
Amnesty cites Syrian civilian deaths; ‘lies,’ Moscow retorts
— A human-rights group says it has evidence suggesting Russia has committed war crimes with airstrikes in Syria, killing more than 130 civilians and causing “massive destruction” in residential areas.
In a report published Wednesday, Amnesty International said there is evidence that Russia unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely populated areas of Syria as well as cluster munitions.
Assessments of six Russian attacks showed that airstrikes damaged or destroyed dozens of civilian sites including a mosque, a market, medical facilities and houses, it said.
Some Russian strikes “seem to have attacked military objectives and civilian objects without distinction, or caused disproportionate harm to civilians when striking military targets,” Amnesty said in the report. “Such attacks may constitute war crimes.”
The London-based watchdog also denounced Moscow’s “shameful failure” to acknowledge civilian killings.
Russia, which began its bombing campaign Sept. 30 in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad against
Islamic State and other militant groups, repeatedly has rejected allegations that innocent civilians have been killed or injured.
Russia has said its armed forces are striking only terrorists including those who’ve carried out beheadings and enslavement of people.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters at a briefing Wednesday in Moscow that Amnesty’s report contains lies and unsubstantiated allegations. Russia’s military isn’t using cluster bombs in Syria, he said.
He particularly criticized the group’s claim that the Russian strikes targeted areas where there were no militants, saying Amnesty had no way of knowing that.
“Jihadis in Syria operate in highly mobile units, using Toyota pickup trucks with high-caliber weapons mounted on them,” he said. “Each of those vehicles is considered a tactical unit and represents a legitimate military target.”
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said previously that Russia is conducting the operation in full compliance with international law and its “bans on using one or another type of weapons.”
Amnesty’s report focuses on six attacks in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces between September and November.
Amnesty said Russian bombers targeted residential areas and killed 119 civilians in five of the attacks it studied. They included at least 34 people who died when three missiles struck a busy market in the center of Ariha in Idlib province on Nov. 29. Thirteen civilians died in the sixth attack, which involved airstrikes in the immediate vicinity of a hospital.
Amnesty’s report cited town residents as saying there were no militants in the area. Rebels with the Army of Conquest — an umbrella group that includes hard-line factions and militants from the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria — had conquered Ariha from Syrian government forces in the spring.
Amer, a resident of Idlib who said that he witnessed the Ariha attack, said he had never seen such carnage.
“It seems for the Russians and Syrians everything is allowed.” He did not give his full name, fearing for his own safety.
The research “indicates serious failures to respect international humanitarian law,” Amnesty said. “In some attacks, the Russian armed forces appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military objective.”
Peskov, in a conference call with reporters Wednesday, said the Kremlin doesn’t have information about any such instances or the “reliability of the data cited by Amnesty International.” The Russian Defense Ministry will study the report, he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents casualties in the Syrian civil war through activists inside the country, says Russian strikes in Syria have killed at least 710 civilians since Sept. 30, compared with nearly 600 Islamic State militants and 824 fighters of other opposition groups.
CLUSTER MUNITIONS
Amnesty’s report also said the group has gathered evidence, including photos and video footage, suggesting the Russians have used unguided bombs in densely populated civilian areas, as well as internationally banned deadly cluster munitions.
The assertion echoed similar accusations by Human Rights Watch over the weekend. The New York-based group said that attacks in Syria using airdropped and ground launched cluster munitions have increased significantly since Russia began its military operations in Syria.
Cluster munitions, which can be delivered from the ground by artillery and rockets or dropped from aircraft, are by nature indiscriminate and often leave unexploded bomblets on the ground. These can maim and kill civilians long after the hostilities or a conflict ends. Russia and Syria are among several nations — including the United States — that are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the bombs.
Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, flatly rejected the claim that Russian aircraft used cluster bombs in Syria.
The Moscow spokesman criticized Amnesty for taking a “biased” approach toward Russia and adding that the U.S.-led coalition, Syria and Turkey also have conducted airstrikes in Syria where the level of coordination has been poor — suggesting those strikes also have caused civilian casualties.
“Why does Amnesty International put the emphasis on the Russian action? Such accusations are groundless,”
Konashenkov said.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted with concern the Amnesty report, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Wednesday. But Haq added that the U.N. “cannot independently confirm the cases presented” in the report.
Amnesty’s report comes after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday endorsing a plan for a political transition to end Syria’s bloody civil war. Foreign ministers from 17 states involved in talks in New York before the U.N. vote failed to agree on Assad’s fate and on which opposition factions should be considered “terrorists.”
The U.S. and its allies, which are bombing Islamic State in Syria, want Assad to leave office as part of a resolution of the five-year conflict, while Russia says this is a matter for the Syrian people.
The U.N. resolution urges member states to support cease-fire efforts and to end attacks on civilians and calls for all parties to allow access for humanitarian aid. It calls for a transitional government within six months and elections within 18 months.
POISON-GAS CLAIM
The war-crimes report came as Syrian government forces attacked a rebel-held town southwest of Damascus with artillery fire and with helicopters dropping barrel bombs and as opposition groups accused the government of using poison gas in an assault there the previous night.
Five people, among them one civilian, died of suffocation after a missile attack Tuesday night, according to a media activist based in the town of Moadamiyeh. He said four missiles were fired from the nearby Mezze air base and struck at the same time as a barrel bomb attack, adding to the confusion. No other people have since been reported killed.
Amateur videos from a town clinic, made available Wednesday, show medics inserting ventilation tubes into apparently unconscious patients. They did not appear to have suffered traumatic injuries.
Washington could not confirm the attacks.
“The initial reports appear to be credible, but we cannot confirm them,” said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. He added that it will be up to U.N. experts to validate the claims.
The claim of a poison-gas attack could not be independently verified. It also was reported by the Local Coordination Committees group and the main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition opposition group.
The activist in Moadamiyeh, who identified himself only by his first name, Ahmad, said helicopters dropped more than 40 barrel bombs on the town and its surrounding areas Wednesday.
A video shared on social media shows a helicopter dropping four barrels in quick succession over what is purported to be the town area, while another shows a tank advancing on a scorched plain outside the town.
“The goal is to sever the road between Moadamiyeh and Daraya, to completely besiege and separate the two areas,” said Ahmad. He said the assault continued into the evening.
The two towns have been under siege by government forces since 2013. Government and opposition forces struck a truce to allow food into Moadamiyeh that December, but it has been broken many times. The latest bout of fighting began last week.
Moadamiyeh was the site of a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held areas outside Damascus that killed hundreds of people.