Advocacy Group Accuses Syrian Government of Unlawful Airstrikes
Source: NYT
PARIS — A human rights advocacy group accused the Syrian authorities on Thursday of ordering “indiscriminate and in some cases deliberate airstrikes against civilians,” offering the newest testimony in more than two years of uprising and war that President Bashar al-Assad is confronting the campaign to unseat him with increasingly harsh tactics.
The targets included civilians standing in line for bread at bakeries and hospitals where the airstrikes “strongly suggest that the government also deliberately targeted these facilities,” Human Rights Watch said.
But it also castigated the rebellious Free Syrian Army and other armed adversaries of the Assad government, saying insurgents “did not take all feasible measures to avoid deploying forces and structures such as headquarters in or near densely populated areas.”
“However, an attacking party is not relieved from the obligation to take into account the risk to civilians from an attack on the grounds that the defending party has located military targets within or near populated areas,” Human Rights Watch said.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/world/middleeast/syria.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fworld%2Findex.jsonp
