The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned Russian airstrikes in Syria in a statement it released on Wednesday, claiming that the Russians are attacking civilians like the regime does. "It is unacceptable for the sake of humanity that the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, uses all kinds of weapons and ammunition against civilians just like the regime," read the statement. The statement was released in response to footage from Syria which purportedly showed Russian warplanes using incendiary bombs over Aleppo. The Foreign Ministry statement went on to say that such footage is "extremely worrying." Russian state television accidentally broadcast footage of Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft mounted with incendiary bombs at the Russian airbase in Syria’s western Latakia province. Human rights groups discourage the use of such weapons in war, especially in civilian areas. In a dispatch on Tuesday the Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Arms Division, Mary Wareham, pointed out that HRW had received a letter from Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last November in which he admitted that “significant humanitarian damage” had been caused by incendiary weapons in the war in Syria due to their "improper use." Wareham suggested such damage could be avoided if international law is observed in the Syrian conflict and such weapons are not used at all in areas inhabited by civilians.
