ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Russian and Syrian attacks on civilian infrastructure in northwest Syria’s Idlib can be categorized as war crimes, if not crimes against humanity, says a top human rights watchdog.
“The alliance launched dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war, striking homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and markets – the places where people live, work, and study,” reads a new Human Rights Watch report published on Thursday.
The 192-page report examines 46 ground and air attacks on civilian targets between April 2019 and March 2020, when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power launched an extensive offensive against pro-Turkey rebels and their allied jihadists in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. The offensive displaced an estimated 1.4 million people.
A ceasefire agreement was negotiated in early March amid calls for a global reduction in hostilities by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres amid the coronavirus crisis.
“They used cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, and improvised “barrel bombs” in populated areas to deadly effect,” adds the report, which claims 1,600 civilians were killed in the attacks.
In the attacks examined by the New York-based organization, the areas have been verified civilians, with no evidence of opposition military weapons, equipment, or personnel present at the time of the attacks.
"In these attacks we could not identify a single military target," Belkis Wille, the organisation’s senior crisis and conflict researcher, told Rudaw on Thursday via video call, noting that none of the hundreds of people they interviewed noted anything indicative of a military target.
“We've written to the Russian and Syrian governments asking them if there were military targets and they refused to answer us. As such, we have to assume the targets were the civilian infrastructure.”
Idlib is currently home to 3 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-weary country.
“Most of the attacks occurred in populated areas, and no residents said that the Syrian-Russian alliance ever provided any advance warning,” it adds, saying the overwhelming majority of attacks documented were located a distance away from areas the Syrian government and oppositions groups were fighting in.
The report identifies 10 senior Syrian and Russian civilian and military officials who HRW says may be implicated in the crimes on civilians, and have not been held to account. “They knew or should have known about the abuses and took no effective steps to stop them or punish those directly responsible.”
Updated at 10:15 pm with Belkis Wille's comments
“The alliance launched dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war, striking homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and markets – the places where people live, work, and study,” reads a new Human Rights Watch report published on Thursday.
The 192-page report examines 46 ground and air attacks on civilian targets between April 2019 and March 2020, when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power launched an extensive offensive against pro-Turkey rebels and their allied jihadists in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. The offensive displaced an estimated 1.4 million people.
A ceasefire agreement was negotiated in early March amid calls for a global reduction in hostilities by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres amid the coronavirus crisis.
“They used cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, and improvised “barrel bombs” in populated areas to deadly effect,” adds the report, which claims 1,600 civilians were killed in the attacks.
In the attacks examined by the New York-based organization, the areas have been verified civilians, with no evidence of opposition military weapons, equipment, or personnel present at the time of the attacks.
"In these attacks we could not identify a single military target," Belkis Wille, the organisation’s senior crisis and conflict researcher, told Rudaw on Thursday via video call, noting that none of the hundreds of people they interviewed noted anything indicative of a military target.
“We've written to the Russian and Syrian governments asking them if there were military targets and they refused to answer us. As such, we have to assume the targets were the civilian infrastructure.”
Idlib is currently home to 3 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-weary country.
“Most of the attacks occurred in populated areas, and no residents said that the Syrian-Russian alliance ever provided any advance warning,” it adds, saying the overwhelming majority of attacks documented were located a distance away from areas the Syrian government and oppositions groups were fighting in.
The report identifies 10 senior Syrian and Russian civilian and military officials who HRW says may be implicated in the crimes on civilians, and have not been held to account. “They knew or should have known about the abuses and took no effective steps to stop them or punish those directly responsible.”
Updated at 10:15 pm with Belkis Wille's comments
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