Amnesty International has accused Russia of committing some of the most “egregious” war crimes seen in decades by allegedly targeting civilians in Syria and attacking aid workers who try to help them, Sky News reported Sunday.
?€?We’ve documented strikes on schools, strikes on hospitals and civilian homes,?€? Amnesty International's crisis response director Tirana Hassan told Sky News. ?€?One of the most egregious parts of what Russia and the Syrian forces are doing is they?€™re bombing these civilian targets when it itself is a war crime.?€?
?€?But then they?€™ve been looping around — and this is a consistent report, that there are second bombardments ?€” which then have been injuring and killing humanitarian workers and just civilians who are going in to actually evacuate the wounded and the dead,?€? she said.
Moscow has rejected accusations that its air strikes are deliberately targeting civilians, and claims that its campaign ?€” which began on Sept. 30, 2015 ?€” is aimed at terrorists. But Western officials argue that Russia's strikes are intended to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad by targeting his political opponents.