Including 86 at the Hands of the Syrian-Russian Alliance
SNHR has published its special periodic report on attacks against vital civilian facilities by the conflict parties in Syria.
The report documents the incidents of attack on vital civilian facilities in March where no less than 114 attacks against vital civilian facilities were recorded as follows: 47 by the Syrian regime forces, 39 by Russian forces, 3 by ISIS, 2 by armed opposition factions, 2 by Kurdish Self-management forces, 20 by international coalition forces, and 1 by other parties.
The report notes that for the first time, the international coalition forces were responsible for 20 incidents of attack on vital civilian facilities in one month since the start of the international coalition’s intervention on September 23, 2014, which was in parallel with an unprecedented rise in the toll of civilians killed by the same forces in March as well, after the international coalition escalated their bombardment operations in ISIS-held areas.
The report breaks down the facilities that have been targeted in March as follows: 41 Infrastructures, 29 vital educational facilities, 17 places of worship, 16 vital medical facilities, 8 communal facilities, 1 international humanitarian insignia, 2 refugee camps.
Furthermore, the report notes that the documented attacks were only the minimum of the actual magnitude of crimes in light of the many practical difficulties during the documentation process.
The report affirms that investigations conducted by SNHR show that there were no military centers before or during these attacks. Syrian regime forces and the other perpetrators of these crimes must justify their actions before the United Nations and the Security Council.
According to the report, the international humanitarian law considers indiscriminate, deliberate, or disproportionate attacks as unlawful attacks. Syrian regime forces’ attacks against schools, hospitals, churches, and bakeries is an utter disregard for the most basic standards of the international humanitarian law and the Security Council Resolution.
The report also notes that Russian forces, armed opposition factions, ISIS, international coalition forces, Kurdish Self-Management forces, , and other parties (Includes groups that we weren’t able to identify and the Turkish, Lebanese, and Jordanian forces) have attacked some of these facilities. The indiscriminate random bombardment is a violation of the international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.
The report calls on the Security Council to bind all parties, especially Syrian regime forces considering that it is the main perpetrator of most of these violations, to implement Resolution 2139 and, at least, condemn the targeting of vital civilian centers that are indispensable for the lives of civilians.
Finally, the report calls on the states that support the armed opposition to cease their support for the factions that didn’t respect the international humanitarian law.