A UN panel says the evacuation of eastern Aleppo in December after months of siege and aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian forces was the latest in a series of war crimes committed in the six-year-old conflict.
Paulo Pinheiro, the Chairperson of The Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said there was no military necessity to justify the mass displacement of civilians to Idlib governorate.
The Commission issued a report on Wednesday looking at violations by all parties in the final chapter of the battle for Aleppo.
It singled out a “particularly egregious attack” in which Syrian warplanes targeted a humanitarian aid convoy.
The agreement to evacuate rebel-held eastern Aleppo gave civilians no option to remain at the end of the protracted campaign, in which daily bombings left all the hospitals in the area out of service.
The commission said such agreements “amount to the war crime of forced displacement of the civilian population.”
(REUTERS)
