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UN Human rights body adopts resolution on situation in war-torn Aleppo

Xinhua, October 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution on Friday, calling for a UN commission of Inquiry to investigate actions in Aleppo and identify those responsible for alleged violations of international human rights law.

Instigated by Britain and supported by a number of countries including the United States, the resolution takes into account the worsening human rights situation in war-torn Syria as well as recent events in Aleppo, the scene of intense fighting pitching forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebel groups seeking to oust him.

Speaking via videoconference Friday morning, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned that the northern city of Aleppo has become a "slaughterhouse ... a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed."

He also said the violations perpetrated by all belligerents in the city which has been divided in two since 2012 could amount to war-crimes.

"Armed opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate airstrikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties," he explained.

While recalling that hundreds of thousands of people are facing extreme hardship in 17 other besieged locations across the country, Zeid reiterated the UN's call for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Aleppo to allow much needed humanitarian aid to reach those in need.

Though a Moscow-backed unilateral ceasefire is currently in place, the UN warned earlier Friday that it had yet to receive the necessary safety guarantees allowing medical evacuations to be carried out in east Aleppo, where some 275,000 civilians are living.

Syrian Ambassador Hussam Edin Aala said that those supporting Friday's resolution were guilty of anti-Syrian propaganda and fabricating "baseless accusations about committing violations."

"Again, Britain is leading handful of countries seeking to revive dead colonial glories, and others involved in supporting, funding and arming the Wahabi, Takfiri terrorism in my country, Syria," he said.

Syria has been locked in five-year civil war since March 2011. Over 300,000 people have been killed as a result of protracted fighting, while millions more have been displaced. Endit