Washington-Led Attacks on Raqqa City Amount to War Crimes: Amnesty International

BEIRUT- Amnesty International said that the US-led coalition attacks on Raqqa city last year under the pretext of combating terrorism amount to war crimes, SANA reported.

According to Amnesty International report on Tuesday, the US-led coalition attacks on Raqqa broke international law.  “The US did not take sufficient account of civilians or take the precautions measures to minimize casualties while attacking Raqqa in 2017,” the report included.

 Amnesty interviewed 112 civilian residents of Raqqa during field research there in February, while investigating the sites of 42 air, artillery and mortar strikes.

 “Witnesses reported that there were no militants in the vicinity at the time of the attacks. Such attacks could be either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks,” said Amnesty, adding that “such attacks amounted to war crimes.”

Amnesty International further went on to call on the coalition to admit the scale of damage, pave the way for a public independent investigation and make reparations to victims of their actions.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what it claims are Daesh targets in Raqqa without any authorization from the Syrian government or a United Nations mandate.