Syrian raid may amount to war crime, says rights group

Amnesty International says regime air strikes targeting ISIL-held Raqqa in November last year killed 100 civilians.

 

The Syrian government's attack on a bastion of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in 2014 has killed 100 civilians and carries "every indication of being war crimes", Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights organisation, says.
The allegation comes as opposition groups are again accusing Syrian forces of using chlorine gas, killing women and children.
In a new report on Tuesday, Amnesty defined the attack launched by the government in November 2014 on the city of Raqqa as a series of "ruthless air strikes".
It said the strikes carried out between November 11 and 29 killed 115 civilians, including 14 children, and hit non-military targets including a mosque, a transport hub and a busy market.

Raqqa is the self-proclaimed capital of ISIL Syria, but Amnesty said there was no indication that fighter positions were the target of the series of strikes.
"Syrian government forces have shown flagrant disregard for the rules of war in these ruthless air strikes," Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, said.
"Some of these attacks give every indication of being war crimes.
"The government appears indifferent to the carnage caused by these strikes, refusing even to acknowledge civilian casualties they have caused."
Luther acknowledged that Raqqa is a stronghold of ISIL members, but said their presence did not justify attacks on civilian targets.
Amnesty repeated a call for the war in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying it would "send a message to all warring parties".
It also urged an arms embargo to "stem the flow of weapons being used to commit these crimes".
ISIL controls chunks of territory in Syria and Iraq where it has declared an Islamic caliphate.
US air strikes
In other Syria-related developments on Tuesday, the US military said it had conducted seven air strikes against ISIL targets in the country.
The strikes hit targets near al-Haskah and Kobani, the military said in a statement.
Separately, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, accused the Syrian government of violating a 1974 agreement creating a buffer zone between Syria and Israel.
Ban criticised the increased use of heavy weapons by Syria's government and armed groups operating in the separation area.
He called on President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw troops and equipment and stop air strikes from the zone.
Ban said in a report to the UN Security Council circulated on Tuesday that there should be no military forces in the area of separation except UN peacekeepers.
More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011, when anti-regime protests began, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
The government put down the demonstrations with force and the situation escalated into a civil conflict.
Nearly a third of those killed in the conflict are civilians, and around half of Syria's population has been displaced by the war.