Syria: Amnesty, hundreds of civilians dead in Russian raids

Amnesty examined six airstrikes believed to be carried out by Russian Federation in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces between September and November which it said killed at least 200 civilians and around a dozen fighters. “This suggests that the attacks may have violated worldwide humanitarian law and may, in some circumstances, constitute war crimes”, the report said.

Amnesty International researched remotely more than 25 attacks between Sep 30 and Nov 29, 2015.

The accusations follow a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch last week which said cluster munitions were used on at least 20 occasions since Syria and Russian Federation began their joint offensive on September 30.

Some of the strikes, according to Amnesty, involved Russian aircraft indiscriminately bombing populated civilian areas and the use of cluster munitions.

Amnesty gave one such example, the BBC reports, of a Russian warplane firing three missiles into a busy public market in the Idlib province on 29 November. In a few moments, the main street, packed with people buying and selling fruit and vegetables, turned into a scene of carnage with burning cars and the wounded screaming in terror.

“It is crucial that suspected violations are independently and impartially investigated”.

Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, told a news briefing in Moscow that the Amnesty report contained “fake information”.

Russia’s ministry of defence did not respond to an FT request for comment on Amnesty’s findings on Tuesday night.

The majority of the Russian attacks were in and around the Syrian cities of Idlib, Homs and Aleppo. In doing so, it interviewed by phone or over the internet 16 witnesses to attacks and their aftermath, including two doctors, and spoke to more than a dozen human rights defenders and representatives of medical organizations supporting work in the areas of the attacks.

Moscow insists that it is bombing IS jihadists but Western countries, including the United States which leads a parallel coalition against the Islamic State group have accused Russian Federation of targeting moderate opposition groups and propping Assad’s regime. 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.

Cluster munitions are indiscriminate and due to the high dud rate pose a long-term threat to civilian populations. Russia’s military, while in possession of precision-guided munitions, has predominantly used unguided weapons or “dumb bombs” – many of them decades old – against targets in Syria.