A Russian rocket slammed into a home in central Syria, killing dozens of civilians last week. According to human rights activists, the attack, and many more, may have violated the laws of war.
Russian jets have bombed nearly 100 Syrian targets in 24 hours, the highest one-day tally since Moscow started its bombing campaign to support the Syrian army a month ago, Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday, Oct. 26.
But there appears to be a big downside in Moscow’s air war against what it describes as “terrorists”—civilian casualties, and more than 100,000 Syrians who have been displaced.
The airstrikes have killed at least 446 people, more than a third of them civilians, since the bombing started at the end of September, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist organization that has been criticized by Moscow in the past. Previous reports from the Observatory on civilian casualties have been dismissed as “fake” by Russia.
Moscow insists its intervention in Syria is aimed at fighting terrorists, including ISIS, but some analysts say the strikes appear to mainly target moderate rebels fighting against the Syrian army. Bombings that leave civilians dead could open the possibility of a criminal probe into suspected war crimes carried out at the behest of Russian authorities.
