Including 132 Incidents at the Hands of the Russian and Syrian Regime
SNHR has published its special periodic report on attacks against vital civil facilities by the conflict parties in Syria.
The report documents the incidents of attack on vital civil facilities in October where no less than 144 attacks against vital civil facilities were recorded as follows: 88 incidents by government forces, 44 by Russian forces, four by armed opposition factions, and seven by international coalition forces in addition to an incident that the report wasn’t able to identify the group behind it.
The report breaks down the facilities that have been targeted in October as follows: 46 infrastructures, 34 educational facilities, 21 places of worship, 29 medical facilities, nine communal facilities, one cultural facility, and four 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. Government 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. Government 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 and the international coalition 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 government 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 civil centers that are indispensable for the lives of civilians.
Finally, the report calls on the states that support the armed opposition to cease its support for the factions that didn’t respect the international humanitarian law.