Assad regime committed war crimes attacking medical sites: UN

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - Syria’s Assad regime committed war crimes attacking medical facilities around the Idlib de-escalation zone, the United Nations Commission into Syria said on Monday.

“In attacking medical facilities, pro-government forces repeatedly committed the war crime of deliberately attacking protected objects and intentionally attacking medical personnel,” said the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria at the launch of its newest report.

The commission also said it has “reasonable grounds” to believe that Russian aircraft participated in bombing incidents around July and August last year.

"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," it added.

Commissioner Hanny Megally said: “Turkey has tried to be very careful in its own actions to avoid the types of civilian casualties as we have seen in other instances."

"The armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic is far from over as the types of human rights violations continue to multiply," commission chair Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said.

The Commission published its report for the period between July 11 and Jan. 31.

“After nearly nine years, Syrian women, children and men continue to face unprecedented levels of suffering and pain,” said the commission chair.