UN report slams Russia for war crimes against Syrian civilians

Russian warplanes have helped the Assad regime in its war against the Syrian opposition since 2015, helping it establish control over much of the country.

In the wake of its campaign hospitals have been flattened and civilian infrastructure has been laid to waste, not to mention the huge death toll among Syrian civilians.

In terms of civilians killed, Russia is responsible for a quarter of all deaths since it entered the war, second only to the regime, which kills half. 

Now a UN report confirms what many already knew - That both the Assad regime and Russia have committed war crimes in Syria.

UN investigators cited a number of instances in which Russian forces appeared to deliberately attack civilians, including a July 2019 double-tap bombing at a market in the town of Maarat Al Nouman in Idlib province.

A double tap attack is when an attack launched with the intention of drawing onlookers and emergency workers to a scene, only to attack it again.

It is a tactic commonly used by terrorist groups to strike fear into civilian populations.

The July 2019 incident killed 43 civilians including women and children. The bodies of victims were so badly mutilated that family members had to identify their loved ones using birthmarks and other features.

Russian warplanes waited for ambulances to gather at the site of the initial attack before returning to bomb the site again, killing scores.

In a separate incident Russian forces attacked a compound housing displaced civilians near the village of Haas in Southern Idlib killing 20 people, including eight women, one of whom was pregnant, and six children.

“In both incidents, the Russian Air Force did not direct the attacks at a specific military objective, amounting to the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas,” the UN report says.

Further war crimes highlighted by the report include the use of cluster munitions by the Assad regime, as well as the deliberate targeting of medical facilities by Assad and his Russian patrons.

The use of such aggressive tactics against civilians has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis whose impact is felt way beyond Syria’s borders.

More than six million people have fled Syria in search of safe haven, with the majority finding refuge in neighbouring Turkey.

A further five million people are internally displaced in regions that are at further risk of Assad regime and Russian atrocities.