War Crime: Syrian Regime Killed Hundreds of Civilians, including Children, with Airstrikes on Aleppo

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http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/civilians-including-airstrikes.html

War Crime: Syrian Regime Killed Hundreds of Civilians, including Children, with Airstrikes on Aleppo
By Juan Cole | Dec. 23, 2013
(By Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher, Human Rights Watch)

Dozens of government airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians, including children, in Aleppo governorate in the last month were unlawful. After months of stalemate between government and opposition forces in Aleppo, Human Rights Watch documented an intensification of government attacks starting on November 23. December 15 to 18 saw the most intense aerial attacks in Aleppo to date.

The attacks have hit residential and shopping areas, often killing dozens of civilians, either missing possible military targets or with little indication of any intended military objective in the vicinity. Human Rights Watch interviewed victims, witnesses, local activists, and medical personnel by phone and corroborated their statements by analyzing video and photographs posted on the Internet. A Human Rights Watch consultant visited three attack sites and interviewed eight victims and witnesses.

“Government forces have really been wreaking disaster on Aleppo in the last month, killing men, women, and children alike,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Syrian Air Force is either criminally incompetent, doesn’t care whether it kills scores of civilians – or deliberately targets civilian areas.”

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), which investigated deaths that occurred between December 15 and 18, documented the deaths of 232 civilians, the vast majority from airstrikes. Another Syria-based monitoring group that systematically collects information about deaths in the conflict, the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), collected the names of 206 killed in aerial attacks between December 15 and 18, including two fighters.