ANKARA
Amnesty International has used a new report to accuse the Syrian government of the “systematic killing” of civilians and the use of indiscriminate "barrel bombs."
The report, named “Death Everywhere,” examines human rights abuses in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo and has also accused some rebel groups of war crimes.
Amnesty research, released on Monday, has documented civilians who have the main victims of the regime’s barrel bomb attacks as the ongoing conflict runs into its fifth year.
Barrel bombs are ad-hoc explosive devices which have been accused of causing indiscriminate civilian casualties, especially when dropped in built-up areas.
Both Syrian regime forces and many opposition groups committed war crimes in Aleppo and the government’s actions in some cases amounted to crimes against humanity, according to Amnesty.
The regime in Damascus has denied the use of barrel bombs.
However, according to the report, at least 3,124 civilians were killed and 35 fighters died in regime barrel bombs attacks between January 2014 and March 2015 in Aleppo.
The attacks targeted at least 14 public markets, 12 transportation hubs and 23 mosques. Other civilian buildings, including at least 17 hospitals and medical centers and three schools, were also hit, according to the report.
“Widespread atrocities, in particular the vicious and unrelenting aerial bombardment of civilian neighborhoods by government forces, have made life for civilians in Aleppo increasingly unbearable," Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, said.
"These reprehensible and continual strikes on residential areas point to a policy of deliberately and systematically targeting civilians in attacks that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
“I saw children without heads, body parts everywhere. It was how I imagine hell to be,” a medical source told Amnesty.
“Barrel bombs are the most horrible and hurtful weapon… (We deal with) multi-trauma, so many amputations, intestines out of the body, it’s too horrible. We have seen incredible things. We have not seen these types of injuries in any medical book,” the source continued.
The report also claims that both government forces and many opposition groups have committed torture, arbitrary detention and abduction.
Civilians suffer from a lack of basic supplies including food, water and medicine in Aleppo and other cities, according to the report.
