ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--Russia has once again defended its conduct in Syria and rejected accusations that its air strikes have left scores of Syrian civilians dead.
"All of these anonymous and unsubstantiated statements about the alleged use of Russian aircraft on civilian targets in Syria is increasingly reminiscent of hypnotists' acts in traveling circuses." The Russian defense ministry said in a statement this week, according to AFP.
Moscow called the reports and accusations of mounting civilian deaths ‘absurd’.
The US State Department accused the Kremlin of killing "hundreds of civilians" through its bombing of "medical facilities, schools and markets,” in Syria.
The defense ministry statement goes on to ask about the “absolute silence” about the US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria.
Washington argues that its campaign is highly precise, aimed at keeping civilian casualties at a minimum while it characterizes Russia's campaign as wantonly destructive and indifferent to Syria's civilian population.
The Russian statement was released on Wednesday, the same day the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Moscow's warplanes have been responsible for 2,371 deaths in Syria since September 30.
Among that death toll were 792 civilians, 180 of whom were children the watchdog claimed.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) also slammed the Russian conduct in Syria in December.
HRW criticized Russia for using indiscriminate munitions such as cluster bombers and Amnesty even went so far as to accuse Russia of being guilty of war crimes in that country.
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