Rights group: Russian air strikes in Syria have killed hundreds

“In just a few moments, people were screaming, the smell of burning was in the air and there was just chaos”.

Amnesty International has said it has evidence that Russian forces in Syria are targeting civilians with cluster bombs. Thirteen civilians died in the sixth attack, which involved airstrikes in the immediate vicinity of a hospital.

It denounced Russia’s “shameful failure” to acknowledge civilian killings. It also reviewed statements published by the Russian Ministry of Defence and relevant articles in Russian and other media.

“Jihadis in Syria operate in highly mobile units, using Toyota pickup trucks with high-calibre weapons mounted on them”, he said.

Video footage of the scene after the attack shows no evidence of a military presence, Amnesty said.

Alleged shrapnel of a cluster bomb is seen after the war crafts belonging to the Russian army attacked opposition controlled Merce neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on December 14.

The charge echoed similar accusations by Human Rights Watch last Sunday.

A local activist group said a total of 49 civilians were either killed or missing and feared dead in that particular strike.

“We examined this report”, defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing. “‘Terrible waves of indiscriminate attacks” Speaking to the Independent upon the release of its report, Amnesty said its research suggested Russia’s role in Syria had gone from “callous to catastrophic”.

“Civilians continue to live in fear and bear the brunt of Russian air strikes”, said Grant Bayldon, Executive Director of Amnesty International in New Zealand.

Moscow has repeatedly denied causing civilian deaths, describing such claims as part of “information warfare”.

Amnesty also utilized open-source publications and consulted with a number of other agencies, including the United Nations.

Russia’s entry into the conflict has further muddled the military landscape in the Syrian War, where front lines are always shifting and the list of participants keeps growing.

Amnesty, an advocacy group that documents human rights violations around the world, wrote Wednesday’s report after conducting extensive interviews with civilian witnesses to the strikes. “They included airstrikes on residential areas, homes and a mosque”.

“The Russians should speak to what they are doing, what they are hitting, what they are missing”, the official said. He did not give his full name, fearing for his own safety.

It’s not the first time Russian airstrikes, which began over three months ago, in Syria are being criticised.

Shoebridge insists that “some degree of civilian casualties” is nearly inevitable from any aerial campaign even with the most precise weapons, but says that even people witnessing the attacks on the ground can’t point to the perpetrator with any degree of certainty.

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.

Russian Federation has yet to directly respond to Amnesty’s report.