Vladimir Putin has signed an order to have Russia withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid calls for his military to be referred over air strikes backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the annexation of Crimea.

The President instructed Russia's foreign ministry to notify the United Nations of the country's refusal to be subject to the body's activity on Wednesday, following the same move by Gambia, South Africa and Burundi.

State media reported that the government was pulling out of the 2002 Rome Statute, which establishes the International Criminal Court's status and powers, although the Kremlin never ratified the agreement it signed in 2000.

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“The International Criminal Court has not justified hopes placed upon it and did not become a truly independent and authoritative judicial body,” a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said.

A statement claimed that Russia "consistently advocates that people guilty of grave offences must be held accountable" and took part in developing laws against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Francois Hollande, the President of France, called suggested that Russia should face war crimes charges over its bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo last month.

“These are people who today are the victims of war crimes,” he told French television amid hundreds of reported civilian deaths.

“Those that commit these acts will have to face up to their responsibility, including in the ICC.”

Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 1/19 Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 2/19 Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP 3/19 Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty 4/19 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP 5/19 Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty 6/19 Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 7/19 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters 8/19 Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 9/19 Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters 10/19 Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria 11/19 The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria 12/19 Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP 13/19 Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit 14/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 15/19 Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed 16/19 A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria 17/19 A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit 18/19 Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria 19/19 Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps Â© TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

It was the latest call parties in the conflict to be prosecuted by the ICC, after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to refer the Assad regime in 2014.

Both Russian and Syria have denied deliberately killing civilians or breaking international law in the Syrian civil war, saying they are targeting terrorist groups.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued an appeal to all countries attempting to withdraw from the ICC on Wednesday.

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He said those making the attempt were seeking to “desert victims of the most abominable international crimes” and could not claim their action was based on principle.

“If the State Parties, who apparently have been masquerading in recent years as countries devoted to criminal accountability, want to leave, then they should leave,” Mr al-Hussein added.

“But we are not convinced their position is based entirely on principle. Quite the opposite: it appears to aim more at protecting their leaders from prosecution.”

The commissioner said there was “no substitute” for the ICC, which he hopes will be eventually accepted universally.

“By withdrawing from the Rome Statute, leaders may shield themselves with immunities – but it will be at the cost of depriving their people of the protection of a unique and essential institution,” he warned.

“We face a choice. We can safeguard our societies by standing firm on the principles of justice which anchor this institution.

“Or we can cast away the moorings of law laid down to save the world from horror – and turn away from the screams, as impunity overwhelms men, women and children in wave upon wave of violence.”

The ICC is intended to prosecute and bring to justice those responsible for the worst violations of international law - genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

But far only African defendants have been put on trial and a number of countries including the US, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey have not signed the treaty.

Like Russia - Egypt, Iran and Israel signed but failed to ratify the agreement, making it unlikely their governments could ever be prosecuted by the court. </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - A suspected chemical attack on civilians in Syria is a war crime that bears the hallmarks of Bashar al-Assad’s government, but its ally Russia shares potential criminal responsibility for its use, the head of Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of the activist group, said countries should consider putting pressure on President Vladimir Putin ahead of Russia hosting the World Cup in June, as Assad was already “a man who has no reputation left”.

The alleged poison gas attacks on rebel-held Douma over the weekend killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 1,000, a Syria medical relief group said on Monday.

Damascus denied its forces had launched any chemical assault and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such allegations were false.

“The use of chemical weapons is inherently a war crime. Add on top of that the people here who seem to have been targeted - which is typical for the Assad government - have been civilians,” Roth said in an interview with Reuters in his Geneva office.

“This use of chemical weapons against civilians sheltering in their basements is part of a broad pattern, not simply a pattern of chemical weapons use but a pattern of targeting civilians who happen to live in areas held by the opposition.”

These constituted grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by a future special court on Syria, said Roth, an American lawyer who has headed the group since 1993.

Russia has been the main ally of Assad providing men and military equipment in his seven-year fight against rebels.

Human Rights Watch has not been able to investigate on the ground. But some witnesses have reported that a Syrian government helicopter dropped a chemical cylinder that was later found, Roth said.

U.N. war crimes investigators have documented more than two dozen uses of deadly chemical weapons by Syrian government forces since the war began in March 2011.

“In the past he (Assad) has used chemical weapons, not so much for the large number of people they kill, but because they are terrifying weapons. They demoralise the enemy,” Roth said.

“There is no question that the Assad government is criminally liable for the war crime strategy of targeting civilians,” Roth said.

“I think a strong case can be made that Russia shares criminal responsibility for the war crime strategy pursued by the Assad government in targeting civilians.”

Allegations that Moscow poisoned a Russian ex-spy living in Britain last month led to diplomats being expelled and tough financial and travel sanctions against Putin-allied oligarchs, Roth said.

“I hope that people are thinking about what can be done with the World Cup approaching to put similar pressure on Putin to rein in Assad and his atrocities,” he added. </s> Russian warplanes attacked rebel-held areas in northern Syria for the first time in weeks on Sunday, as Syrian officials said more than 100 people were treated at hospitals for a suspected poison gas attack in the northern city of Aleppo that Damascus and Moscow blamed on rebels.

MORE: UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIA ATTACKED SHIPS IN BLACK SEA

The rebels, who have denied carrying out any poison gas attacks, accused the government of trying to undermine a truce reached by Russia and Turkey in September during a summit in the Russian city of Sochi.

The targeted area is rebel-held and home to extremist groups opposed to the truce such as the al-Qaida-linked Horas al-Din, which has described the deal as a “great conspiracy,” and the Ansar al-Din Front.

Russian military spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters in Moscow that Russian warplanes destroyed militant positions in northern Syria blaming them for the attack with poison gas on Aleppo.

The latest wave of shelling and air strikes in northern Syria is the most serious violation of a truce reached by Russia and Turkey that brought relative calm to the country’s north for the past two months.

“The planes of Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces carried out strikes on the detected artillery positions of terrorists in the area, from where the shelling of Aleppo civilians with chemical munitions was conducted late” MG Konashenkov said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa News Agency, an activist collective, said warplanes pounded rebel-held areas west and south of Aleppo city. The air strikes were the first since the truce went into effect on September 17.

Syria’s Arab News Agency, SANA, said Syrian troops pounded rebel positions near Aleppo “inflicting heavy losses among terrorists.” SANA said the alleged chemical attack late on Saturday was carried out by “terrorist groups positioned in Aleppo countryside” that fired shells containing toxic gases on three neighbourhoods in Syria’s largest city.

Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Lama Fakih said “serious reports of suspected chemical weapon attacks should not be left without investigation.”

She added that all parties, including the Syrian government and Russia, should facilitate an investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into the suspected attack in Aleppo.

MG Konashenkov said earlier that Russian chemical weapons specialists have been dispatched to Aleppo.

Russia is a close ally of President Bashar Assad and has intervened in recent years to turn the tide of the civil war in his favour. “According to preliminary data, particularly the symptoms shown by the victims, the shells that bombarded residential areas of Aleppo were filled with chlorine gas,” MG Konashenkov said.

Syria’s forensic medicine general director, Zaher Hajo, told Associated Press that all but 15 of the 105 people who were treated have been discharged. He said two people who were in critical condition have improved.

The Observatory said 94 people were treated, with 31 remaining in hospitals. Turkey’s defence ministry in a statement said on Sunday Minister Hulusi Akar spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu about the recent developments in northern Syria.

The statement said the two exchanged views on “recent provocations that have been evaluated as aimed to undermine the Sochi agreement may continue and the need to be ready.”

A joint team from the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accused Syria’s government of using chlorine gas in at least two attacks in 2014 and 2015, and the nerve agent sarin in an attack in April 2017 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed about 100 people. The UN-OPCW team also accused the Islamic State extremist group of using mustard gas twice, in 2015 and 2016.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and contacts throughout Syria, said the air strikes hit the Rashideen district on the western outskirts of Aleppo and the village of Khan Touman south of the city.

The truce brokered by Russia and Turkey, which supports the rebels, has been repeatedly violated, but until Sunday there had been no air strikes.

Syrian state media meanwhile reported that rebels shelled the Christian village of Mahradeh in northwestern Syria, causing material damage but no casualties.

In Jordan, local media reported that troops opened fire on six people trying to infiltrate the border from Syria killing four and wounding two. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — The latest on Syria (all times local):

Russia has denounced what it called "aggression" against Syria in the wake of an apparent Israeli missile attack on a Syrian military installation near Damascus International Airport.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not directly blame Israel for the Thursday morning explosion, but cited Syrian media as saying Israel was responsible.

She says "Moscow condemns acts of aggression against Syria" and calls on everyone to "act within the framework of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria."

Israel appears to be striking at military convoys and installations in Syria at a quickening pace, maintaining it has the right to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group that fights alongside Syrian government forces.

Syrian activists say airstrikes across the opposition-held Idlib province have killed at least 19 people, with some targeting ambulances and medical centers.

The Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue organization, says four medical staff were killed in an attack on a university hospital in Deir Sharqi, and another four paramedics or ambulance operators were killed in a strike on an ambulance services charity in Maarzita.

The activist-run Idlib Media Center said another four people were killed by barrel bombs dropped on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the site of a chemical attack earlier this month.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 civilians, including nine children, were killed around the northern province on Thursday. The Civil Defense reported the same overall death toll.

The activists believe Russia or the Syrian government launched the raids. The U.S. is also known to strike at positions in Idlib province, where it targets al-Qaida-affiliated fighters.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by the war have sought refuge in the rural province, which is now largely under the control of hard-line rebel groups. It borders Turkey to the north.

Syria's government has condemned what it says are "lies and fabricated allegations" by the French foreign minister concerning a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this month.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that the chemical analysis of samples taken from the April 4 sarin gas attack "bears the signature" of President Bashar Assad's government and shows it was responsible.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Syrian foreign ministry said Ayrault's remarks show "France's involvement in masterminding this crime."

It also said France was not suited and had no legal authority to determine what happened in Khan Sheikhoun, the rebel-held town where the incident occurred.

Britain's foreign secretary says Britain could join the United States in further military action against Syria if asked to do so.

Boris Johnson said Thursday it would be "very difficult to say no" if the U.S. seeks British help on a military mission against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

He did not specify whether Parliament would be asked to approve any military action ahead of time. He said that decision would be up to the government and Prime Minister Theresa May.

President Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile attack against a Syrian air base earlier this month in response to Assad's apparent use of chemical weapons against Syrians.

U.S. officials have said further attacks are likely if Assad uses banned chemical weapons again

Syria's state media is reporting that Israel has attacked a military installation near the Damascus International Airport.

SANA says Israel fired several missiles from inside the occupied Golan Heights south of the capital at a military installation near the capital's main airport, triggering several explosions and causing damage.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Residents reported feeling the blasts shortly before 4 a.m.

Israel's intelligence minister says a large explosion near the Damascus airport is in line with Israeli policy but stopped short of taking responsibility for it.

Yisrael Katz wouldn't comment directly on the strike Thursday morning but said "it absolutely matches our declared policy, a policy that we also implement."

Israel has repeatedly warned against "game-changing" weapons reaching Hezbollah from Syria, which along with Iran supports the militant group. Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets on Israel in the 2006 war.

The explosion was heard across the Syrian capital, jolting residents awake, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman said.

Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war. It has also carried out a number of airstrikes on suspected weapon convoys it believed were destined for Hezbollah.

Syrian opposition activists and a monitor say a large explosion has rocked the Syrian capital, followed by a fire near Damascus airport.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman says the explosion early Thursday has been heard across the capital, jolting residents awake. He says the explosion is reported to have occurred near the Damascus airport road.

The dawn explosion has also been reported by other activists' networks but the source was unclear.

Activist-operated Diary of a Mortar, which reports from Damascus, says the explosion near the airport road was followed by flames rising above the area. A pro-government site Damascus Now says the explosion was near the city's Seventh Bridge, which leads to the airport road. </s> BERLIN — A group of lawyers are seeking to launch a criminal case in Germany against Syrian President Bashar Assad over alleged war crimes committed in the city of Aleppo.

The lawyers on Monday presented a criminal complaint against Assad, which they are submitting to German federal prosecutors. German law allows prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, under which countries can pursue foreigners for crimes committed abroad.

The lawyers cited Amnesty International reports and individual accounts by asylum-seekers in Germany in arguing that there is overwhelming evidence of multiple atrocities committed by Assad in Aleppo between April and November.

Attorney Mehmet Daimaguler said: "We're experiencing genocide in Aleppo in slow motion."

He cited the targeted bombing of hospitals, cluster bombs on civilians and forced expulsion. </s> AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria and its main ally Russia blamed Israel for carrying out an attack on a Syrian air base near Homs on Monday which followed reports of a poison gas attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on a rebel-held town.

Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour’s seven-year-old civil war, has not confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria by its arch foe.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed including some fighters of various nationalities, a reference to Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia members, mostly from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran fighting alongside the Syrian army.

The attack demonstrated the multi-faceted nature of the Syria conflict, which started in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad and now involves several countries and various insurgent groups in a web of alliances.

It took place hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of a “big price to pay” following the reports of a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma which killed dozens of people, including children.

Trump referred in a Tweet to “Animal Assad” and criticised Russia and Iran for backing the Syrian leader, directly naming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Damascus denied its forces had launched any chemical assault and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such allegations were false and a provocation. Lavrov also said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development.

Syrian state TV initially said the United States was suspected of carrying out the attack on T-4. Washington denied this, and France, which in February had said it would strike in the event of a chemical weapon attack on civilians by Syrian government forces, also said its forces were not involved.

The Russian military, whose support for Assad has turned the war in his favour, said two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out the strike. Interfax news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying Syrian air defence systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired.

Syrian state media, citing a military source, carried a similar report. “The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land,” state news agency SANA said.

The Israeli government had no immediate comment.

Israel has accused Damascus of allowing Iran to set up a complex at the T-4 base to supply arms to its ally, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and in the past its forces have hit convoys and bases of Iranian-backed militias that fight alongside Assad’s troops.

Defence analysts say a number of Russian troops are also based there and jets fly regular sorties from T-4.

Israeli opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid told Army Radio: “Israel will not accept an Iranian military presence in Syria and will not accept Iran’s creeping entrenchment in Syria and this has costs.”

Housing Minister Yoav Galant, while also not confirming that Israel had carried out the attack, said: “We have clear interests in Syria. We laid down red lines there, which said that we would not allow Syrian land to be a springboard for game-changing weaponry to Lebanon, we would not allow the building of an Iranian army in Syria and we would not allow the opening of another front on the Golan Heights.

“In this context we are taking action with all means, over time.”

As international officials worked to try to confirm Saturday’s chemical attack on Douma, a Syria medical relief group said at least 60 people had been killed there and more than 1,000 injured in several sites.

The toll is likely to rise, said the Union of Medical Care Organizations (UOSSM), a group of international aid agencies.

“The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge,” the group said.

The Syrian American Medical Society and the civil defence service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had been killed in the suspected gas attack.

The Syrian opposition blamed the suspected chemical attack on government forces, who launched an air and ground assault on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta district, on Friday.

One video shared by activists showed bodies of about a dozen children, women and men, some with foam at the mouth.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town in northwest Syria. The gas attack was blamed on Assad.

U.S. government sources said Washington’s assessment of Saturday’s attack was that chemical weapons were used. The European Union also said evidence pointed to the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces.

The U.N. Security Council will meet twice on Monday following rival requests by Russia and the United States.

U.N. war crimes investigators had previously documented 33 chemical attacks in Syria, attributing 27 to the Assad government, which has repeatedly denied using the weapons.

UOSSM said doctors could not determine the origin of the chemical attacks. Dr. Muhammad, a doctor in Ghouta, said patients were coughing blood, a symptom not seen in previous chemical attacks.

Professor Rapharl Pitti of UOSSM France said that after viewing videos from the site, the patients seem to present convulsions more typical of sarin.

“Everything suggests that during the second attack, chlorine was used to conceal the use of sarin at the same time ,” he said.

The attack appears to have brought Assad closer to sealing victory in the military campaign for eastern Ghouta launched by the Russian-backed Syrian army in February.

Following the attack, the rebel group Jaish al-Islam gave way to a Syrian government demand that it accept safe passage out to rebel-held areas at the Turkish border.

It marks Assad’s most significant victory over the rebellion against his rule since 2016, and underlines his unassailable position in the conflict. </s> A Russian mobile hospital was hit by shelling on Monday, just days after it was set up to provide assistance to civilians in Aleppo.

Two Russian medics were killed and another seriously injured after around a dozen of shells hit the facility. Civilians attending appointments were also wounded in the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry ministry said that it attributes blame for the hospital shelling to “terrorists and their patrons in the US, the UK and France.”

The Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov accused the United States of both providing the rebels with the coordinates of the Russian hospital as well as providing the weapons with which it was hit:

“The blood of our soldiers is on the hands of their hirer of the murder. These people who created, supported and armed these beasts in human form, called them ‘opposition’ to justify themselves towards their own conscience and voters.”

“Yes, the blood of our soldiers is on your, ladies and gentlemen, the patrons of terrorists from the United States, Britain, France and other countries and sympathizers formations, hands.”

And here is footage from directly after the attack. Looks pretty brutal…

Syria recriminations — as well as suspicious incidents — continue. So far we’ve seen US accusing Russia of systematically bombing hospitals and taking out an aid convoy, Russia accusing the US of intentionally massacring ninety Syrian soldiers fighting ISIS, Turkey accusing Syria of bombing Turkish troops, Russia accusing Turkey of ambushing its plane over Syria, and US accusing Syria of using chemical weapons against its civilians — all of which the accused side denies.

So what is the truth of this one? Honestly from here we can’t know. It could be that al-Nusra and associated jihadis got in a lucky shot and killed themselves some Russians. It could even be that the Russian military suspects that but finds it convenient to blame the Americans and turn on some information warfare heat on the other side for a change.

The more disturbing possibility is that Russians are right and telling the truth. Certainly the part about United States providing the artillery with which the deed was done is plausible, even highly probable.

You may recall that after the failure of the first ceasefire agreement in February the US was openly readying a “Plan B” to arm “moderate rebels fighting the Russia-backed regime” with “more-powerful weapons”. Specifically the talk was of dispatching anti-aircraft cannons and powerful ranged artillery.

In fact deliveries of powerful rocket artillery units were later confirmed on multiple occasions by the rebels and have been observed in action before against west Aleppo.

It is highly likely that Russian medical personnel were slain by weapons whose transfer was sanctioned by the United States. As to whether the US provided the coordinates as the Russians claim to believe we can’t know but we can point out this all looks very familiar.

You will recall that US struck Syrian troops in Deir ez-Zor in September allegedly in a case of mistaken identity — yet the attack certainly proved useful to the Department of Defense in burying the Kerry-Lavrov deal which had been signed just days before and which Ash Carter and most of the military were deeply hostile to.

Also of half a dozen amateur map makers tracking the lines of control on the internet not one of them had the Syrian positions which were targeted (and had been static for months) as held by ISIS — somehow the intelligence of the US military was poorer than that of internet amateurs?

With the Syrian army even without Russian air cover being on the cusp of victory in Aleppo, and civilians there contrary to expectations of the western media being jubilant about it too the times are again very critical, even desperate for the would-be regime changers — and right “on schedule” another suspicious incident occurs.

This was certainly a provocation by the rebels to try to provoke Russians into overreacting and providing the western press with plausible atrocity stories which have so far been missing from the story of the fall of eastern Aleppo — question is only how much (and it almost certainly is how much rather than if) did the US do to contribute? </s> * War crimes by rebels, not of same gravity or scale

* Security Council urged to take action given evidence

GENEVA, Aug 15 Syrian government forces and allied militia have committed war crimes including murder and torture of civilians in what appears to be state-directed policy, U.N. investigators said on Wednesday.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad had also committed war crimes, including executions, but on a smaller scale than those by the army and security forces.

The report called for the U.N. Security Council to take "appropriate action" given the gravity of documented violations by all sides in a 17-month conflict that investigators said had become a civil war.

"We have identified both parties as guilty of war crimes and of course a greater number and of bigger variety from the government side," Karen AbuZayd, one of two commissioners aided by some 20 investigators, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Paulo Pinheiro, the commissioner who led the probe, said Syria's army of 300,000 had targeted rebel-held areas of cities with heavy artillery and helicopters. It had "much more means to inflict war crimes, for example bombing civilian populations".

"Besides evidence, we have names connected to the evidence," Pinheiro told Reuters, speaking from his native Brazil.

"But we are not a judicial or prosecutorial body. This is a problem for the Security Council, not for us."

The Security Council can refer a case to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the U.N. war crimes tribunal, but Russia and China - which have veto power - have been loath to condemn Syria.

The independent investigators conducted more than 1,000 interviews, mainly with Syrian refugees or defectors who have fled to neighbouring countries, over the past year to produce their latest 102-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

They found "reasonable grounds" to affirm that government forces and their allied shabbiha militia had committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross violations.

These included "unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, indiscriminate attack, pillaging and destruction of property".

Government forces and shabbiha militia had raped men, women and children in acts that could be prosecuted as crimes against humanity, the investigators said. Government troops had targeted staff of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a war crime, they said.

A Syrian air strike killed 30 people in a rebel-held town on Wednesday, a local doctor said, and a mass kidnapping linked to Syria in neighbouring Lebanon raised the prospect of sectarian violence spreading.

Evidence confirmed a previous finding that "violations had been committed pursuant to State policy", the U.N. report said.

Large-scale operations conducted in different provinces, their similar complexity and integrated military/security apparatus "indicate involvement at the highest levels of the armed and security forces and the government".

Rebels had killed captured government soldiers, shabbiha and suspected informers, sometimes after summary trials, the investigators said. "Executing a prisoner without affording fundamental judicial guarantees is a war crime," they added.

"We have many instances reported to us where the anti-government forces have executed prisoners. They say they don't have detention facilities and are not based in one territory and can't take care of them. This is a war crime," Pinheiro said.

Both government forces and armed insurgents had displayed "more brutal tactics and new military capabilities" as fighting escalated during recent months, the report said.

Each side had violated children's rights, it said. At least 125 youths under age 18, mainly boys, had been killed since February, while others were arbitrarily arrested without charge.

"Children described having been beaten, whipped with electrical cables, burned with cigarettes and subjected to electrical shocks to the genitals," the investigators said of those in the custody of state forces.

Armed insurgents continue to use children as couriers or to help with medical evacuations, they said.

Completing their probe into a massacre in the town of Houla in May - which the government blamed on Islamist "terrorists" - they said government forces and shabbiha fighters were responsible for the killings of more than 100 civilians.

Forty-one children were killed in Houla, including some by shelling, "but most appeared to have been shot at close range".

The investigators said they would update their confidential list of suspects or units responsible for crimes and give it to U.N. rights boss Navi Pillay when their mandate ends next month.

"We don't name any names in the report," AbuZayd said. "But the evidence is recorded all along." </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday slammed the US and its allies for carrying out a military strike on Syria, saying that Washington was “increasingly exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria” as he called for an immediate UN Security Council meeting to discuss the “aggressive action”.

“Russia strongly condemns the attack on Syria where Russian servicemen are helping the legitimate government in the war on terrorism,” the Kremlin press office quoted Putin as saying.

“By its actions, the US is increasingly exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria and actually conniving at terrorists who have been tormenting the Syrian people for seven years and provoking a new wave of refugees from that country and the region as a whole,” he said.

Putin said the US used a “staged chemical attack” against civilians to carry out the Friday night strike, TASS news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “the action against Syria came precisely at the moment when the country received a chance for a peaceful future”.

The coordinated airstrikes in Syria were conducted by the US, France and the UK as American President Donald Trump sought to “punish” his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad for an apparent chemical attack in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, last week that killed over 70 people.

The latest strikes targeted three facilities associated with Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, including a scientific research facility around Damascus, a chemical weapons storage facility around Homs alleged to be used for sarin gas and a nearby command post, according to the Pentagon.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry called the joint airstrikes a “flagrant violation of international law and the principals of the UN charter”, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

“Syria calls on the international community to strongly condemn this aggression, which will lead to nothing but the igniting of tensions around the world and pose a threat to international peace and security as a whole,” the ministry said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed their countries’ involvement in the action with the former saying there was “no practicable alternative to the use of force”.

But May also said the strikes were not about “regime change”. In a further press briefing on Saturday, she said that while the assessment of the strike’s results was still ongoing, May was confident of its success.

Macron, talking about the Douma chemical attack, said: “Dozens of men, women and children were massacred with chemical weapons. The red line had been crossed.”

“We cannot tolerate the normalisation of the employment of chemical weapons, which is an immediate danger to the Syrian people and to our collective security.

“France and its partners will today resume their efforts at the UN to enable the creation of an international mechanism to establish responsibility, prevent impunity and obstruct any temptation on the part of the Syrian regime to repeat these acts.”

Nato Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg tweeted in support for the strikes, saying those who use chemical weapons “must be held accountable”.

Trump indicated the strikes would continue until the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons ends.

“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” he added.
Human Rights Watch calls the attack a war crime and says both Russia and Syria may bear criminal responsibility.