Russian bombing of Syria may constitute war crime – Amnesty

“In the report, Amnesty said it had “researched remotely” more than 25 Russian attacks that took place in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo between 30 September and 29 November”.

Russia’s bombing of Syria may quantity to a war crime as a result of of the quantity of civilians its strikes have killed, Amnesty International stated on Wednesday, presenting what it stated was proof that the air raids had violated humanitarian regulation.

It said there was evidence that Russia’s military “unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely populated areas and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions”.

In one incident, Amnesty found that five civilians were killed and a dozen homes destroyed by what it suspects was a cruise missile strike launched from a Russian ship. Witnesses described how within seconds the bustling Sunday market turned to a scene of carnage. “Such conduct does not cultivate confidence in their willingness to investigate reported violations in good faith”, said Phillip Hunter. A single cluster bomb may hold hundreds of submunitions.

Western nations have previously faulted Russian Federation primarily for attacking “non-ISIS targets”, including al-Qaeda’s holding in Idlib Province.

“It will be interesting to know from Russian Federation what more evidence they would like because there is a tonne of evidence at their doorstep that they have committed probable war crimes and they have not stood up to that at all”, said Sammonds.

“We have a question for Amnesty International: why did this organization keep silent and turn a blind eye to material, undeniable, real evidence of the use of cluster munitions by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against cities in eastern Ukraine?” The Russian Defense Ministry will study the report, he said.

Amnesty’s report follows another one released by Human Rights Watch last week that said Russian Federation used cluster bombs in at least 20 raids.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted with concern the Amnesty report, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Wednesday. Some also say that Russian-operated planes tend to fly in twos.

In another suspected Russian attack, at least 46 civilians, including 32 children and 11 women who were sheltering in the basement of a residential building, were killed on October 15 in al-Ghantu, Homs governorate. Statements from Russia’s foreign ministry announcing “terrorist” targets hit, were compared with details from the ground about these attacks from witnesses and local activists.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated December …