Rights watchdog accuses Russia of civilian killings in Syria

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

Russia’s bombing of Syria may amount to a war crime because of the number of civilians its strikes have killed, Amnesty International said on in a report on Wednesday, presenting what it said was evidence that the air raids had violated humanitarian law.

Since intervening in Syria to bolster the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has claimed that it is targeting “Islamic State” (IS) and other terrorist groups.

Amnesty says some of those raids appear to have directly targetted civilians by striking “residential areas where there is no evident military target” – and the organisation says the strikes have even targetted medical facilities.

Also, the organization said it was “shameful” that Russian Federation “does not want to acknowledge civilian casualties”.

The group said that on 29 November at least one suspected Russian warplane fired three missiles into a busy public market in Ariha, in Idlib province.

Populated areas in which there is no trace of military targets have been attacked.

It said there was evidence suggesting Russia uses internationally-banned cluster bombs in its strikes while Russian authorities may have covered up civilian damage to a mosque and a hospital. “In just a few moments, people were screaming, the smell of burning was in the air and there was just chaos”.

Amnesty compiled the evidence and done the research from outside the country interviewing “by phone or over the internet 16 witnesses to attacks and their aftermath”, as well as reviewing “audiovisual imagery”.

‘Such attacks may amount to war crimes, ‘ he said. It said that cluster munitions have also been used in Libya, Sudan and Yemen this year, “causing unacceptable harm to civilians”.

On Wednesday, chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security, called Amnesty’s report a “provocation”, according to a report in Sputnik, a state-run Russian news agency.

Cluster munitions are indiscriminate and due to the high dud rate pose a long-term threat to civilian populations.

“Already in its preface the report says that all facts stated therein were examined by Amnesty International remotely, obtaining information during telephone polls of local so-called human rights activists”, he said.

The Syrian conflict has killed more than 250,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes since it broke out in March 2011.