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More than 500 people have been killed in 2,000 air strikes across Syria by regime forces over the past 40 days, a monitoring group said yesterday. |
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused President Bashar al-Assad’s government of “war crimes”, saying it ought to be “listed in the Guinness Book of World Records” for the large number of strikes since October 20.
The Britain-based group, which relies on a broad network of activists and medics on the ground for its information, said the raids had left at least 527 dead and 2,000 wounded.
The Observatory called on the international community “to take real steps towards putting an end to war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Syrian people are suffering daily, and for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court”.
On Wednesday alone, raids on the Islamic State (IS) militant group’s self-declared “capital” of Raqa killed 95 people, “the vast majority civilians”, according to the Observatory.
The United States said it was “horrified” by the bloodshed in Raqa, where a US-led coalition has also targeted the IS with air raids.
“The Assad regime’s continued slaughter of Syrian civilians further exposes its callous disregard for human life,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The Syrian air force first launched air strikes against rebel-held areas in July 2012 when the government lost control of swathes of Aleppo city.
It has since pounded areas across the country on a daily basis, often with crude “barrel bombs” dropped from helicopters.
“In the past 40 days alone, there have been strikes against parts of 12 of Syria’s 14 provinces,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“Millions of people have fled their homes because of the strikes, becoming internally displaced or refugees in neighbouring countries,” he said.
Syria’s air force currently has 275 warplanes, having lost 87 aircraft last year, some shot down by rebels, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The United Nations and rights groups have repeatedly urged all sides in Syria’s war to refrain from using weapons that fail to discriminate between military and civilian targets.
The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed more than 195,000 people since it began three and a half years ago as an uprising against Assad’s regime.
Syria rejected as “fabricated” US accusations that its forces are targeting civilians with air strikes and said Washington would do better to criticise IS militants who have killed American citizens.
“The Syrian Arab Army does not target civilians and will not do so,” state news agency Sana quoted Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying late on Thursday.
He said Washington got its information from “terrorist organisations” in Syria such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front.
“The US State Department should rather have shown respect for the souls of American victims at the hands of terrorists from the Daesh (Islamic State) organisation and not directed fabricated accusations towards the Syrian state which has been facing terrorism for years,” Zoubi was quoted by Sana as saying.
Three US civilians - two journalists and an aid worker - have been beheaded by IS.
Assad’s government has characterised all opponents of his rule as extremists.
“Everyone has to choose between two options - either you are with terrorism, Daesh, Nusra Front and others or you are countering terrorism,” Zoubi said.
