Amnesty: Attacks on Aleppo’s Kurdish section amount to ‘war crimes’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo has been subjected to several indiscriminate attacks which could amount to war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday. 

Sheikh Maqsoud's civilians have been killed and maimed by indiscriminate mortar and rocket fire, including chemical weapons attacks, and generally "displayed a shameful disregard for human life." 

Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, Magdalena Mughrabi, said that these "appear to be repeated indiscriminate attacks" which "may amount to war crimes." 

Amnesty has collected a list of 83 civilians in the neighborhood who have been killed from these attacks between February and April. Another 700 civilians have been wounded. Sheikh Maqsoud is home to an estimated 30,000 civilians. 

"The international community must not turn a blind eye to the mounting evidence of war crimes by armed opposition grumps in Syria," she said. "The fact that the scale of war crimes by government forces is far greater is no excuse for tolerating serious violations by the opposition." 

Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham and Army of Islam have been blamed for these attacks. 

In addition to these bombardments Sheikh Maqsoud's civilian population is effectively trapped with limited food and humanitarian relief. 

"Sheikh Maqsoud is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis," Mughrabi warned, "It is critical that the Syrian government and armed groups urgently allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid and allow civilians who wish to leave the area to do so."