Russian raids in Syria may include war crimes: Amnesty

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that Russian air strikes have killed 2,132 people in Syria, a third of them civilians, since they began on September 30.

In one incident from November 29 Amnesty has reason to believe that Russian missiles killed 49 civilians in a public market place in Ariha in Idlib province.

The group said the Russian attacks may have purposely targeted civilian residential areas and also medical facilities and used cluster bombs and so-called “dumb” bombs, which are less accurate.

Amnesty noted that Russian authorities “have claimed that their armed forces are only striking “terrorist” targets”. The group says it also examined videos and images purportedly showing the aftermath of attacks, supported by the opinion of “weapons experts”. Populated areas in which there is no trace of military targets have been attacked.

“Russian air strikes in Syria have killed a whole lot of civilians and induced large destruction in residential areas, hanging houses, a mosque and a busy market, in addition to medical amenities, in…assaults that present proof of violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation”, Amnesty stated in a new report. It denounced Russia’s “shameful failure” to acknowledge civilian killings. Amnesty said it researched Russian bombings in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo and that Moscow may have committed war crimes.

“At that, they are diversified, and the army, navy and aviation use the most modern weapons”, Putin said. “Russia’s Ministry of Defense must be more transparent and disclose targets of their attacks in order to facilitate assessment of whether they are complying with their obligations under global humanitarian law”, said Amnesty’s Luther.

Since a Russian fighter jet was shot down by the Turkish air force on 24 November, Russia’s Ministry of Defence has released even less information about its campaign in Syria than it did before then. It bases its tallies on Russian-caused casualties by the type of aircraft flown and the munitions used.

Cluster munitions are by nature indiscriminate and often leave unexploded bomblets on the ground. Because of their high dud rate they pose a continuing threat to civilians for years after their initial use.

It has repeatedly and forcefully denied concentrating on civilians, saying it takes nice care to keep away from bombing residential areas.