Syria: Russian air strikes 'killed 200 civilians'

Amnesty International says air strikes carried out in Syria by Russia have killed at least 200 civilians and represent "serious failures to respect international humanitarian law".

In its report, the human rights group accused Russia of using cluster munitions and unguided bombs on civilian areas and said such attacks could constitute war crimes.

Amnesty says it has "researched remotely" 25 attacks between 30 September and 29 October.

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"Some Russian airstrikes appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military target and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians," Philip Luther, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme, told the Guardian. "Such attacks may amount to war crimes," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian military in Syria operates in line with international law and that claims to the contrary are "information warfare".

"Russia is conducting its operation in strict conformity with principles and norms of the international law, including those sections of the international law that regulate using and bans on using one or another type of weapons," Peskov told reporters.

Western officials believe that Putin's claim of focusing the strikes solely on Islamic State held areas are unfounded as most of the attacks have focused on central and northern Syria, where Islamic State does not have a strong presence.

Amnesty gave one such example, the BBC reports, of a Russian warplane firing three missiles into a busy public market in the Idlib province on 29 November.

A local activist group said a total of 49 civilians were either killed or missing and feared dead in that particular strike.

"It was a normal Sunday; there was nothing unusual. People were buying goods; children were eating," the activist, Mohammed Qurabi al-Ghazal, told Amnesty.

"First there was a loud explosion – dirt flying in the air – followed immediately by shock. In just a few moments, people were screaming, the smell of burning was in the air and there was just chaos."

Amnesty also said it is researching concerns about the US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.

More than 250,000 people are believed to have been killed and millions of people have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011.