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              Rights Group: Syrians Face 'Indiscriminate' Attacks

   by VOA News

   Rights group Amnesty International says there is evidence of what it
   calls an emerging pattern of indiscriminate attacks against civilians
   by the Syrian army.
   Amnesty released a report Wednesday based on its investigation earlier
   this month in Idlib, Jabal al-Zawiya and north Hama.
   "Government forces now routinely bomb and shell towns and villages
   using battlefield weapons which cannot be aimed at specific targets,
   knowing that the victims of such indiscriminate attacks are almost
   always civilians.  Such weapons should never be used in residential
   areas," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty Senior Crisis Response Adviser.
   "Such indiscriminate attacks constitute war crimes," added Rovera, who
   recently returned from a visit to Syria.
   The report says recent attacks near hospitals shortly after a large
   influx of casualties, or by bread lines, raise suspicions that such
   attacks are targeting large gatherings of civilians.
   Amnesty International reiterated calls for the United Nations Security
   Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal
   Court saying that those "up and down" the Syrian chain of command
   should know they will be held responsible.
   The report comes days after a U.N. panel presented a report blaming
   both sides for increasing number of attacks against civilians. The
   commission said that while both government and anti-government forces
   have committed war crimes, the abuses by the opposition forces did not
   reach the scale of those carried out by pro-government forces.
   The United Nations says more than 20,000 people have been killed in the
   conflict; 1.2 million are uprooted within Syria, and more than 250,000
   have fled abroad.
   On Tuesday, the U.N.-Arab league envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met
   with Syrian refugees living at a camp in the Turkish province of Hatay,
   near the Syrian border.
   Turkey, which has taken in more than 80,000 Syrian refugees at 14
   separate camps, serves as headquarters for leaders of the Free Syrian
   Army rebels and hosts members of the Syrian National Council opposition
   grouping.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/rights-group-syrians-face-indiscrimin
   ate-attacks/1510746.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/rights-group-syrians-face-indiscriminate-attacks/1510746.html