| Syrians Urge US to Release Evidence of Russian Flight Patterns
Russia’s attacks in Aleppo have been indiscriminate, disproportionate, and may amount to war crimes, according to evidence submitted to the independent international Commission of Inquiry by Syrian civil society groups.
On Thursday 15 December, the Syrian Civil Defense (‘White Helmets‘), Syrian Network for Human Rights, Independent Doctors Association and Violations Documentation Center submitted a dossier of cases documenting Russian responsibility for and complicity in war crimes in the besieged city of eastern Aleppo. Highlighting 304 incidents in which they believed there was a “high likelihood” of Russian responsibility, the organizations urged the Commission of Inquiry to investigate Russia’s responsibility for war crimes in Aleppo and to report on such findings when it presents the results of its Special Inquiry into the situation in Aleppo to the Human Rights Council in March 2017.
Russia’s airstrikes have targeted schools, hospitals, maternity wards, mosques, homes and ambulances, the groups warned. “Russia has also used banned weaponry, and has targeted heavily populated civilian areas, including using bunker buster bombs on residential buildings and hospitals. Russia has air-dropped incendiary weapons and cluster munitions on heavily populated civilian areas. Not even rescue workers or aid providers have been spared Russia’s strikes.” |