Amnesty accuses Russian Federation of killing Syrian civilians in airstrikes

But human rights group say the pattern of attacks suggests Russian Federation is flouting global humanitarian law and that it may even amount to war crimes.

From Sept. 30 to November 29, the human rights monitor says Russia’s bombing campaign also destroyed residential areas and medical facilities, among other public places.

Accusations of deadly Russian airstrikes have become common in Syria.

However, Russian officials immediately denied such allegations, as did some civilian sources and opposition activists in Syria, who said that such attacks “might have been committed by the Syrian Army”. It said that cluster munitions have also been used in Libya, Sudan and Yemen this year, “causing unacceptable harm to civilians”.

In a new report, Amnesty International said Russian air raids had killed at least 200 civilians and about a dozen fighters in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces between September and November.

“Why does Amnesty International put the emphasis on the Russian action?”

“Once again, nothing concrete or new was published, only the same cliches and fakes that we have already debunked repeatedly”, Russian defense ministry spokesman, General-Major Igor Konashenkov, said after reviewing the report.

Amnesty says its reporting is based on interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of attacks.

Amnesty said in its report it is also researching concerns about the US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.

Russia’s military “unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely populated areas and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions”, the report said.

Cluster munitions explode in the air and indiscriminately shower dozens – sometimes hundreds – of smaller bomblets or submunitions over an area the size of a football field.

Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin warned Russian Federation will use more advanced military force against terror groups in Syria “if necessary”. It is very interesting that all these reservations somehow vanished from the many western media publications of this Amnesty International report. 10 people died, 15 others injured after the attack.

In one of the attacks on October 15 mentioned in the report, at least 46 civilians, including 32 children and 11 women who were in the basement of a residential building, were killed in al-Ghantu, in the Homs governorate.

The HRW report found the cluster munitions were either made in Russia or the former Soviet Union, but both Amnesty and HRW were not able to determine with certainty whether cluster munitions attacks were carried out by Syrian or Russian forces, or both.