Syrian convoy attack likely amounts to war crime: UN

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The weekend attack on a convoy carrying Syrian refugees -- including dozens of children who died -- likely amounted to a war crime, the UN said Tuesday.

"We add our voice to the condemnation of the attack near Rashideen near western rural Aleppo Governorate that hit a convoy carrying people from the besieged Syrian towns of Fuha and Kefraya to government-controlled areas, killing dozens of people. It is an attack which likely amounts to a war crime," Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a press conference in the UN’s Geneva offices.

"While at this stage unable to confirm how the attack was carried out or those responsible, footage seen by the UN Human Rights Office showed children gathering around a person giving out sweets just prior to the explosion," Colville added.

Hospitals in the city of Aleppo received the dead bodies of 96 civilians, including 13 women, 16 men, and 67 children, he noted.

"The people were among those being evacuated from Fuha and Kefraya as part of the Four Towns evacuation plan negotiated by Qatar and Iran. These people had been living under incessant shelling for more than two years, with little food or medical supplies, and under the constant fear of attack by armed groups," Colville said.

"We reiterate the High Commissioner’s call for accountability and the need to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court," he added.

About 100 people were killed Saturday when a blast in southern Aleppo hit buses ferrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged regime-held towns.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, as many as 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed -- and millions more displaced -- as a result of the conflict, according to UN officials.