In its latest report, the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry warned that fighting has intensified along multiple frontlines of the Syrian conflict, with the region gripped by fear of a large-scale war.
Writing on the Turkish air strikes, the report said: “Air strikes hit military and civilian targets on 25 December 2023. One hit a medical complex in Ayn al-Arab (Kobane), including a diabetes clinic, interrupting services for at least two weeks. Another destroyed a medical oxygen plant in Qamishlo and damaged a nearby dialysis clinic. Medical staff reported the death of one dialysis patient due to the resulting delay in obtaining treatment.
Other civilian facilities affiliated with the self-administration were also hit, including a warehouse in Qamishli, killing seven civilians, including a woman, and injuring three others. A video issued by Turkish State media of its operations in the north-east of the Syrian Arab Republic showed several targets hit on 25 December 2023 by Turkish air strikes, including the warehouse.
The power station in Swediyah, Hasakah Governorate, was hit anew by Turkish air strikes on 15 January. The attack destroyed the station’s remaining turbines, exacerbating restrictions on access to electricity and reportedly affecting access to water, fuel and other essential services for more than 1 million people.
A series of air strikes hit several locations in Hasakah Governorate on 31 May, causing both SDF and civilian casualties, as tensions mounted between Turkey and the self-administration following the latter’s stated intention to hold local elections. At around 6 p.m., as people gathered to extinguish a fire ignited by a strike on an SDF checkpoint near Tal Hamis village earlier that day, a new air strike injured seven civilians, including two boys and a woman.
On the same day, at around 5 p.m., a farm in Al-Hatimiya village, near Qamishlo, was hit. Two Kurdish Red Crescent ambulances marked with protective emblems were dispatched to the area, where first responders found two men dead. At around 6:40 p.m., two consecutive air strikes hit the vicinity of the farm again, damaging one of the ambulances and injuring one of the first responders. Witnesses told the Commission that they had seen or heard a drone over both the Tal Hamis area and the Al-Hatimiya farm prior to the impact.”
The report said that “International humanitarian law obliges parties to an armed conflict to consider reasonably foreseeable indirect effects of an attack, particularly for the purposes of the rules on proportionality and precautions. In the absence of information on the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from launching the 15 January attack, given the cumulative civilian harm that resulted, there are reasonable grounds to believe that it was disproportionate and may amount to a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Similarly, the report said that “in the absence of military targets identified in the immediate vicinity of the facilities hit,63 the above-mentioned aerial attacks on 25 December 2023 on civilian facilities in Ayn al-Arab (Kobane) and Qamishlo appear to be direct attacks against civilian objects or amount to a failure to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm, in violation of international humanitarian law.
The air strikes of 31 May fit the pattern of drone attacks by Turkish forces. The strike that hit an ambulance marked with a protective emblem may constitute a direct attack on medical personnel or objects. Such attacks may amount to war crimes. The attack that injured civilians may amount to a failure to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm, in violation of international humanitarian law.”
Source: ANF News