Russia’s Defense Ministry is dismissing a new report from Amnesty International about “possible war crimes” in their air campaign in Syria, denying the use of cluster munitions in the war and insisting the other claims are “nothing new.”
Amnesty’s report detailed strikes in residential areas, hitting mosques and hospitals, saying that the strikes have “killed hundreds of civilians.” Amnesty confirmed they are also working on a report on US strikes in Syria, but did not say when this would be released.
Western nations have previously faulted Russia primarily for attacking “non-ISIS targets,” including al-Qaeda’s holding in Idlib Province. The claim from the Amnesty report is that the slain are almost exclusively civilian, with only a “dozen or so” combatants, which would be difficult to reconcile with rebel claims of Russia killing scores of their fighters.
Reports of hundreds of civilian deaths in Russian airstrikes are common enough, and indeed it’s unsurprising to see them denying those reports, as the US, Canada, and everyone else carrying out strikes in Syria similarly blanketly denies their reports of civilian killings.
seems strange………..russia has only recently started their bombing campaign.
was it september 30th when they began? so just 10 weeks in and we're
already seeing a thoroughly researched report? and the claim that they're
"working on" a report on us strikes, which have been going on for well over
a year………..and will be published………well, we don't know when….
so….amnesty is another "london based" rights group……ah, i see. any
chance they're laundering misinformation from the "observatory"?
Dead Syrian are nor that interesting unless their death can be used against someone we don't like.
It would be far more effective to count the people among the dead who were Palestinian refugees.
(Syria had more than 0.5 million when the war started) some of them are bound to be among the dead and dead Palestinians are news gold.
When the US denies civilian casualties, it's a scandal. When Putin's people do it, it just what everybody else is doing. Of course, that cuts two ways. Putin was presented to us as the knight in shining armour who was going to smite the dastardly terrorists with one blow of his terrible swift sword. Now, after months of having his imminent and inevitable victory announced on an almost daily basis on the American internet, we're told that he's just doing what everybody else is doing. How the mighty have fallen.
Why is it "US" and "Putin", instead of "Obama" and "Russia" in your statement?
CORRECTION: "When Obama 's people deny civilian casualties, it's just what everybody else is doing. When Russia does it, it's a scandal." There, now it doesn't have the propagandistic value to it.