LONDON – Aerial attacks in November by Syrian forces on the city of Raqqa – the “capital” of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) -- killed scores of civilians and “may amount to war crimes,” Amnesty International (AI) said in a report Tuesday.
A series of airstrikes between November 11-29 “led to the deaths of up to 115 civilians, among them 14 children,” the London-based international watchdog said in the report, titled “Al-Raqqa under attack: Syrian air force strikes against civilians.”
“They included attacks on a mosque and a busy market crammed full of civilians and other buildings not being used for military purposes,” the report added.
“Syrian government forces have shown flagrant disregard for the rules of war in these ruthless airstrikes. Some of these attacks give every indication of being war crimes,” said Philip Luther, director of AI’s Middle East and North Africa Program.
“The government appears indifferent to the carnage caused by these strikes, refusing even to acknowledge civilian casualties they have caused,” the report added.
Syrian forces “have carried out repeated attacks on civilian areas without clearly identifying military targets, a blatant violation of the requirement to distinguish between civilians and military targets,” AI claimed.
Syrian authorities say the attacks were meant to target ISIS members and bases.
“Evidence gathered by Amnesty International shows that in most cases no military targets could be identified in the vicinity of the areas attacked,” the report said.
During the deadliest day of attacks on November 25, government forces bombed a number of civilian areas, striking a mosque, a busy market, shops, a transport hub, a storage facility and a residential building, according to AI.
“A witness who described the scene in the aftermath of the attack on Museum Market to Amnesty International said 40 buildings had been damaged. He said no military bases or checkpoints were located anywhere in the vicinity,” the report said.
“It was a disaster… it is the main market in al-Raqqa and is usually packed with people during the day, I saw body parts everywhere. I carried 40 bodies to cars, ambulances and pick-ups that transferred them to (hospitals)… I saw at least 50 people with severe and minor injuries,” the report cited the witness as saying.
Another witness to an attack on the Industrial City described a similarly terrible scene: “I saw body parts everywhere, I saw bodies that were burnt and people who had injured extremities. I also saw a body hanging on the electricity wire, maybe from the blast.”
AI condemned the Syrian regime for indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas.
“The mere presence of IS members does not sanction the authorities to carpet-bomb the area without taking likely civilian casualties into account,” it said.
ISIS seized Raqqa last June and declared the city the capital of its “Islamic caliphate,” which spans about a third of Syria and as much of Iraq.
Syria’s civil war, now in its fifth year, has claimed more than 210,000 lives and created close to 9 million refugees.
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