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TURKEY-CONFLICT-SYRIA-AMNESTY
Amnesty accuses Turkey of ‘war crimes’ in Syria
BEIRUT, Oct 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish forces and Syrian rebel allies
have committed “war crimes” including summary executions during their
offensive in northeast Syria, Amnesty International said Friday.
Amnesty accused Ankara’s forces of “serious violations and war crimes,
summary killings and unlawful attacks” in the operation launched on October
9.
There was no immediate response from Ankara, which announced a suspension
of the attacks late Thursday, but it says all possible measures have been
taken to avoid civilian casualties.
Ankara’s operation aims to remove the Kurdish People’s Protection Units
(YPG) from areas near its border in northern Syria.
The offensive has killed at least 72 civilians, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
“Turkish military forces and a coalition of Turkey-backed Syrian armed
groups have displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life,” Amnesty said.
The charges were based on the testimony of 17 people including medical,
aid and rescue workers, journalists and displaced people, as well as video
footage, it said.
“The information gathered provides damning evidence of indiscriminate
attacks in residential areas, including attacks on a home, a bakery and a
school, carried out by Turkey and allied Syrian armed groups,” Amnesty said.
Kumi Naidoo, the organisation’s secretary general, said Turkish forces and
their allies had “displayed an utterly callous disregard for civilian lives”.
The report included testimony of a Kurdish Red Crescent worker who said he
removed bodies from the wreckage of a Turkish air strike near a school in
Salhiye on October 12.
“I couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls because their corpses were
black. They looked like charcoal,” the rescue worker was quoted as saying.
It also said Kurdish female politician Hevrin Khalaf and her bodyguard
were summarily executed by members of the Syrian National Army, a Turkish-
funded and -trained group.
At least two more executions of Kurdish fighters were confirmed, while
Turkey’s Syrian allies had kidnapped two employees of a local medical
organisation, Amnesty said.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1304 hrs