Syria continues to suffer deadly government-initiated airstrikes in its rebel-held north-west, while ordinary citizens bear the brunt of the carnage.
Syrian opposition activists and a war monitor say five people died and 21 were wounded on Sunday as the government continued its air campaign against the region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, says two of the dead were members of the same family.
The day before, an airstrike hit a busy market killing 11 people.
The weekend’s deaths add to the fast-growing list of victims. By last Friday over 100 people had been reported dead in the previous 10 days. About a quarter of those were children.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet blamed the attacks in rebel-held areas on the government and its allies.
But the attacks were met with “apparent international indifference” she said.
Syria and its ally Russia have both denied targeting civilians in air strikes in the Idlib region.
Like the opposition activists and the war monitor, Michelle Bachelet also blames the attacks on the Syrian government and its allies.
Bachelet is also critical of the “failure of leadership by the world’s most powerful nations”.
The rising death toll in the north-western province of Idlib had been met with a “collective shrug” and the conflict had fallen off the international radar. In the meantime the UN Security Council was paralysed, she says.
She says in her view the civilian targets were unlikely to have been accidental and warned that those carrying out the attacks could be charged with war crimes.
“Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions,” she says.
Source
- RNZ News
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- Image: Politico