United Nations war crimes investigators expressed alarm Wednesday at the “staggering” number of civilian deaths as US-backed forces battle to oust the Islamic State group from its Syrian stronghold Raqa. “In areas controlled by extremist factions, we are gravely concerned with the mounting number of civilians who perish during air strikes,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, … Read more
United Nations war crimes investigators expressed alarm Wednesday at the “staggering” number of civilian deaths as US-backed forces battle to oust the Islamic State group from its Syrian stronghold Raqa. “In areas controlled by extremist factions, we are gravely concerned with the mounting number of civilians who perish during air strikes,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, … Read more
They collapsed one after the other. In minutes, Mohammad watched his mother, father and nephew fall to the ground, convulsing after a suspected chemical attack in northwestern Syria. He is barely able to lift his pale blue eyes as he recounts his tragedy to AFP, a day after the dawn strikes killed 72 people in … Read more
International outrage is mounting over a suspected chemical attack that killed scores of civilians in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria on Tuesday morning. AFP’s correspondent in the town of Khan Sheikhun saw lifeless bodies lying at a field hospital, which was itself hit in air strikes hours after the attack. It remains unclear what … Read more
Hundreds of rebels and civilians left the last opposition-held district of Homs on Saturday under a controversial Russian-supervised deal to bring Syria’s third city under full government control. The evacuation of Waer, a northwestern district of the city that has been under siege by the army for years, is the latest in a series of … Read more
The Syrian government intentionally bombed the Ain al-Fijeh spring in December, leaving more than five million people in Damascus without access to water, a UN probe said Tuesday, as it branded the strike a “war crime”. “The information examined by the Commission confirms that the bombing of (the Ain al-Fijeh) spring was carried out by … Read more
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to establish a special team to “collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence” as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Syria. The General Assembly adopted a Liechtenstein-drafted resolution to establish the independent team with 105 in favour, 15 … Read more