Violation of Humanity in Syria

Parties to the armed conflicts in Syria committed war crimes, other serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses with impunity. Government and allied Russian forces carried out indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects using aerial bombing and artillery, causing thousands of civilian casualties. There were reports that government forces also used chemical agents. Government forces maintained lengthy sieges that trapped civilians and cut their access to essential goods and services. The authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained thousands, subjecting many to enforced disappearance, prolonged detention and unfair trials, and continued to systematically torture and otherwise ill-treat detainees causing deaths in detention. They also committed unlawful killings, including extrajudicial executions. The armed group Islamic State (IS) besieged civilians, carried out direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks, sometimes reportedly using chemical agents, perpetrated numerous unlawful killings, and subjected thousands of women and girls to sexual slavery and other abuses. Other non-state armed groups indiscriminately shelled and besieged predominantly civilian areas. US-led forces carried out air strikes on IS and other targets, in which hundreds of civilians were killed. By the end of the year, the conflict had caused the deaths of more than 300,000 people, displaced 6.6 million people within Syria and forced 4.8 million people to seek refuge abroad.
(amnesty international)

Syrian government forces have dramatically escalated their use of chemical weapons attacks against civilians, according to a report released today by Human Rights Watch.

"The government's recent use of nerve agents is a deadly escalation – and part of a clear pattern," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of the non-profit."

"In the last six months, the Syrian government has used war planes, helicopters, and ground forces to deliver chlorine and sarin gas in Damascus, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo; that is widespread and systematic use of chemical weapons," says Ole Solvang, Deputy Director, Emergencies, Human Rights Watch. That, Solvang says, could amount to crimes against humanity."

by Chemicals: The Syrian Government's Widespread and Systematic Use of Chemical Weapons," identifies three different systems being used to deliver chemical weapons:

• Government warplanes appear to have dropped bombs with nerve agents on at least four occasions since December 12;
• Government helicopter-dropped chlorine-filled munitions have become more systematic;
• Government or pro-government ground forces have started using improvised ground-launched munitions filled with chlorine.

It also says research shows that many of the attacks appear to be against civilians, and new evidence, according to the report, supports the conclusion that Syrian government forces have used nerve agents on at least four occasions in recent months: On April 4, 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, and on three other occasions in December 2016 and March 2017, based on interviews with 60 people with first-hand knowledge of the attacks and their immediate aftermath, as well as dozens of photos and videos of impact sites and victims, although the non-profit was unable to conduct ground investigations of the attack sites itself.