Monday, August 5, 2013

Syria: Ballistic Missiles Killing Civilians, Many Children

End Indiscriminate Attacks on Populated Areas 
Human Rights Watch

"(New York) – Ballistic missiles fired by the Syrian military are hitting populated areas, causing large numbers of civilian deaths, including many children. The most recent attack Human Rights Watch investigated, in Aleppo governorate on July 26, 2013, killed at least 33 civilians, including 17 children.

Human Rights Watch has investigated nine apparent ballistic missile attacks on populated areas that killed at least 215 people that local residents identified as civilians, including 100 children, between February and July. It visited seven of the sites. There were no apparent military targets in the vicinity of seven of the nine attacks investigated by Human Rights Watch. In two cases there were nearby military objectives that may have been the government force’s intended targets, but were not struck in either attack.

You cannot distinguish between civilians and fighters when you fire ballistic missiles which have a wide-area effect into populated residentialareas,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Even if there are fighters in the area, you cannot accurately target them and the impact in some of these cases has been devastating to local civilians.”....."

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