Amnesty accuses Russia of killing civilians in its Syrian air raids By Editor






AMNESTY International has alleged that about
200 civilians were killed in Russian air strikes in
Syria from September 30 to November 29, this
year.
Quoting witnesses, the human rights group
accused Russia of using cluster bombs in civilian
areas, and said such attacks could constitute war
crimes.
Russia has however insisted it only targeted the
positions of “terrorist” groups.
Amnesty said in its report that it was also
investigating the US-led coalition air strikes in
Syria.
The US has rarely acknowledged civilian deaths
in its air bombardment of the so-called Islamic
State (IS), which began in September 2014,
although some monitoring groups have said the
toll could run into hundreds.
Russia began air strikes in September this year,
saying it was acting at the request of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and was targeting IS
and other groups it had designated to be
terrorists, some of which are backed by the West.
In the report, Amnesty said it had “researched
remotely” more than 25 Russian attacks that took
place in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo
between 30 September and 29 November.
It had interviewed by phone or over the internet
witnesses to the attacks, and had audio and video
evidence, as well as “advice from weapons
experts”. Amnesty said.
It said there was evidence that Russia’s military
“unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely
populated areas and inherently indiscriminate
cluster munitions”.
A local activist group said a total of 49 civilians
were either killed or missing and feared dead.
“It was a normal Sunday; there was nothing
unusual. People were buying goods; children
were eating,” the activist, Mohammed Qurabi al-
Ghazal, told Amnesty.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said the defence ministry would be looking into
the accuracy of the Amnesty report.
The Kremlin has previously described similar
reports as “information warfare” aimed at
discrediting its operations in Syria.

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