News - World News Assad and Russia use banned cluster bombs, killing and injuring dozens of civilians

 47 cluster munition attacks that killed and injured dozens of civilians in rebel-held areas

BEIRUT (AFP) - Human Rights Watch accused the Syrian regime and its ally Russia on Thursday of extensively using banned cluster munitions in their offensive against rebels in the war-torn country.
The New York-based watchdog said it had documented 47 cluster munition attacks that killed and injured dozens of civilians in rebel-held areas in three provinces since May 27.
Many of these attacks took place north and west of Aleppo, as Russia-backed regime forces sought to besiege the opposition-controlled part of the northern city, it said.
Russia in September launched a campaign of air strikes in support of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
'Since Russia and Syria have renewed their joint air operations, we have seen a relentless use of cluster munitions,' said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at HRW.
'The Russian government should immediately ensure that neither its forces nor Syria's use this inherently indiscriminate weapon,' he said.
HRW in December said it had documented the use of cluster munitions on 20 occasions since Russia launched air strikes on September 30.
'Although Russia and Syria are not members of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, they are still bound by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, which prohibits indiscriminate attacks,' HRW said.
Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air.
Widely banned, they spread explosives over large areas and are indiscriminate in nature, often continuing to maim and kill long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate.
More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Source: AFP, 28 July 2016

UN Security Council : hospitals and clinics be protected in war zones, in Syria

 

Less than a week after air strikes on a hospital in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo killed at least 30 people, the council unanimously adopted the measure that strongly condemned the targeting of health facilities and recalled that such attacks are war crimes.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said it was a "major resolution" that sent a strong warning that there can be "no impunity" for the perpetrators of attacks on medical facilities.

The resolution does not break any new legal ground but British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft stressed that it was "shining a spotlight" on the increase in attacks and serves as a reminder that hospitals, ambulances and medical workers cannot be targets in war.

It was the first-ever resolution adopted by the council specifically on the need to protect medical facilities in war zones.

According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), there were 94 attacks in Syria against hospitals and clinics supported by that NGO and three MSF-linked health facilities in Yemen have been bombed over the past six months.

"Hospitals and patients have been dragged onto the battlefield," MSF president Joanne Liu told the council. "Stop these attacks", she pleaded. "Make this resolution save lives."

'SOMETHING IS DEEPLY WRONG'

The resolution does not name countries, but "demands that all parties to armed conflicts" ensure "the respect and protection" of medical personnel as well as their ambulances, hospitals and other health facilities.

"Such attacks must end," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council. "When so-called surgical strikes end up hitting surgical wards, something is deeply wrong."

The resolution was drafted by five non-permanent Security Council members: Egypt, Japan, Spain, New Zealand and Uruguay.

It was presented at a time when four of the five permanent council members - Britain, France, Russia and the United States - are backing parties in the Syria conflict.