UN Condemns Syria Bloodshed; Over 4 Lakh Displaced in 3 Months

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that medical facilities, schools, markets have been hit.

Syrian White Helmet civil defense workers search for victims from under the rubble of a destroyed building that hit by airstrikes, in the northern town of Kfar Rouma, in Idlib province, Syria, 25 July.

(Photo Courtesy: Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

The UN human rights chief on Friday, 26 July, condemned "international indifference" in the face of mounting deaths in Syria, warning that those responsible for air strikes targeting civilians could be charged with war crimes.

Since late April, the Syrian regime and Russia have stepped up deadly raids on the Idlib region of three million people, a jihadist-held bastion in the country's northwest.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that she was alarmed at "the apparent international indifference to the rising civilian death toll caused by a succession of airstrikes in Idlib."

Bachelet stressed that medical facilities, schools, markets and other clear civilian targets have been hit. "These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident," she said in a statement.

"Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions."

Over 730 Civilians Killed in Idlib Since April

More than 730 civilians have been killed in Idlib in air strikes and ground-to-ground fire by the Damascus government and its allies since late April, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights monitoring group.

Syria's opposition has condemned the bombardment as "genocide", while aid groups have branded the carnage in Idlib the latest "nightmare" in the eight-year conflict.

Bachelet said that even as "airstrikes kill and maim significant numbers of civilians several times a week" the international "response seems to be a collective shrug, with the Security Council paralysed."

"This is a failure of leadership by the world's most powerful nations," the rights chief added. Top UN officials have repeatedly condemned the Security Council's inaction on Syria, with several measures vetoed Damascus ally Russia.

Lakhs of People Displaced over Last Three Months

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. More than 4,00,000 people have been displaced in northwestern Syria over the past three months, the UN said on Friday, as the government presses an intensified bombardment of the rebel-held region.

"More than 400,000 people have been displaced since the end of April," said David Swanson of the United Nations humanitarian affairs agency OCHA.

The region under attack is home to some three million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of the country.

It covers nearly all of Idlib and parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces. Most of the displacement is from southern Idlib and northern Hama, the two areas that have been hit hardest by the flare-up, OCHA said.

"The majority of those fleeing have displaced within Idlib governorate while a smaller number have moved into northern Aleppo governorate. "Roughly two-thirds of people displaced are staying outside camps," it said.

The region is controlled by jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate. OCHA said that since the end of April it had documented 39 attacks against health facilities or medical workers in the region.

At least 50 schools have been damaged by the air strikes and shelling, it added.

A September accord struck between Moscow and Ankara was supposed to spare the region the bloodshed of a government assault, but it was never fully implemented after jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned buffer zone.

Instead, the bombardment has increased in intensity in recent weeks. Air strikes by the government and its Russian ally killed 12 civilians in the region on Thursday, according to the Observatory.

Another 50 civilians were killed in strikes on Monday alone, the majority on a busy market. OCHA described Monday as one of the "deadliest days" in the region since the start of the flare-up.

(This story has been published in an arrangement with PTI. Two separate stories have been combined)