U.N. investigators: Syria deliberately bombed convoy

Report also details war crimes in Aleppo battle

GENEVA — First the Syrian air force dropped barrel bombs from helicopters on a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy, then fired rockets from jets, then strafed survivors with machine guns, U.N. investigators said Wednesday in a report that found government forces not only had committed the attack in September but had done so deliberately, a war crime.

The attack, which killed 14 aid workers and stoked international outrage, was “meticulously planned” and “ruthlessly carried out,” the report said.

It called the attack “one of the most egregious” of many war crimes that investigators said had been committed during the government’s five-month offensive to take full control of the northern city of Aleppo.

The 31-truck convoy organized by the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been carrying food, medicine, children’s clothes and other humanitarian supplies destined for families in oppositioncontrolled areas and had been traveling with the government’s knowledge and permission.

The government of President Bashar Assad had no immediate comment on the new report, but it has repeatedly denied responsibility for the convoy assault or any other war crimes in the conflict, which Assad regards as a battle against terrorism.

The report released Wednesday found that war crimes had been committed by government and rebel forces, corroborating many of the worst allegations that Aleppo residents had made against both sides.

For months, the Syrian forces and their Russian allies bombarded eastern Aleppo as part of a strategy to force surrender, the commission’s chairman, Paulo Pinheiro, told reporters in Geneva.

Pinheiro denounced what he called “the deliberate targeting of civilians” that killed many, including hundreds of children.

The Syrian government and Russia mainly used unguided, indiscriminate munitions on civilian areas, killing 300 people, including 96 children, in the first four days of a September offensive alone, the report said.

The report found that government forces had hit hospitals; used internationally banned chlorine gas and cluster munitions; arrested fleeing civilians; and carried out summary executions.

The U.N. researchers found no evidence that Russia had used chemical weapons. But they said Russian aircraft had joined the Syrian air force in using indiscriminate weapons in a deadly campaign that suggested “a willful disregard” for the international laws of war.