UN labels Syrian, Russian deadly aerial strikes in Idlib as war crimes

United Nations investigators have recently released a report where they claimed that Syrian and Russian airstrikes on schools, hospitals and markets situated in the Idlib province of Syria are war crimes. The report by UN investigators, released on June 7, also condemned the attacks carried out by Islamist Militants.

Syria and Russia accused of crimes against humanity by UN

The UN reports stated that the "indiscriminate bombing" carried out by the two countries in March before a ceasefire could be brokered with Turkey is a crime against humanity and claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians as well as displaced close to a million people. The UN report also accused Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist group of firing artillery shells into civilian areas with no clear military objective, of detaining, torturing and executing civilians who expressed dissenting opinions.

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During a news briefing, Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN panel claimed that all sides were guilty of war crimes and that during these attacks’ children were shelled in schools, parents were killed in the markets, not even patients in hospital beds were spared from the bombardment. The scope of the UN report spans from November 2019 to June 2020.

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As per the UN report, Russia was solely responsible for a deadly bombing that occurred on March 5 in a poultry farm Marat Misrin. The farm was a shelter for displaced persons. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the past has denied many similar claims by the UN of committing war crimes.

The reports suggested that world leaders and security council members open a wider corridor so that displaced people in Syria can be reached with aid, but that vote was vetoed by Russia and China in the UN Security Council, which had previously allowed cross-border aid to pass through Turkey

(Input/Image Credit AP)