Assad, opposition forces causing "unspeakable suffering" to Syrian civilians

Assad, opposition forces causing "unspeakable suffering" to Syrian civilians
United Nations investigators say Syrian government forces and opposition fighters are targeting civilians in a way that has led to human suffering on an unimaginable scale.
2 min read
23 June, 2015
Warring parties are committing atrocities across Syria [AFP]
UN investigators say Syrian government forces and opposition fighters are targeting civilians in a way that has led to "unspeakable suffering".

A report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria into abuses committed from 15 March to 16 June says with "each passing day there are fewer safe places in Syria".

"Civilians are the main victims of an ever-accelerating cycle of violence," Paulo Pinheiro, who heads the UN Human Rights Council's independent commission of inquiry on Syria, said after the report was published on Tuesday.

Pinheiro said government forces, rebel groups and IS had imposed sieges to "devastating effect", causing malnutrition and starvation among residents.

He condemned indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by all parties, but said the government "with its superior firepower and control of the skies inflicts the most damage".

Government forces have repeatedly failed to employ precision weapons "when attacking targets in dense urban areas, causing mass civilian casualties", the report added.   
    


It also condemned the government's use of barrel bombs in aerial attacks against whole areas rather than specific targets for violating international humanitarian law which, "as previously documented, amounts to the war crime of targeting civilians".

The UN also reported government forces had dropped barrel bombs on Syria's northern city of Aleppo nearly every day this year, which amounts to the targeting of civilians and is a war crime.

This follows report that at least ten civilians, including two children, were killed Monday 22 June in a government barrel bomb attack on a mosque in Aleppo.

"The faithful were in the middle of the Maghrib (evening) prayers in a mosque in Aleppo's rebel-held district of Ansari," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the attack also left some 20 people injured.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in the four-year conflict, which has created four million refugees.