A new United Nations report documents how the Russian air force deliberately destroyed a hospital in Idlib governorate, Syria. Released on Tuesday, the report rightly identifies this and similar actions as “war crimes.”
There’s nothing particularly new about the news that Russia has been deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Syria. In support of Bashar Assad’s dictatorship, Vladimir Putin’s forces have repeatedly targeted civilians. Destroying hospitals in Idlib is a particularly favored pastime of the Russian air force. This is no accident. The targeting is designed to maximize civilian suffering so as to pressure those fighting Assad to surrender. Moscow also sees these war crimes as useful in pressuring the international community to support a negotiated cease-fire to the Syrian civil war that is favorable to Russia.
To its rare credit, the U.N. documents two particularly brutal Russian airstrikes here. First, an attack on an isolated poultry farm being used by civilians to take shelter. “At least 16 civilians were killed, including 8 women and 3 children, and 25 others injured, including 5 women and 7 children.”
Then, there’s the Jan. 29 attack on al Shami hospital in Ariha, Idlib.
The report notes that “3 consecutive airstrikes on residential areas in northern Ariha disabled the last medical facility servicing southern Idlib,” adding that “at least 14 civilians, including one doctor, 5 women and 5 children, were killed and 30 to 65 others were injured.” We then get the evidence for Russian culpability.
At “approximately 10:30 p.m., pro-government forces launched three airstrikes that struck a residential area in close proximity to al-Shami surgical hospital, killing the hospital’s director and severely damaging the emergency and x-ray units, in addition to the hospital’s laboratory and vital medical equipment. … Subsequent to this attack, the hospital was rendered non-operational, thus leaving civilians with no other operational medical facility in southern Idlib. Approximately 12 residential homes located near the hospital, in addition to numerous commercial shops, a bakery, civilian vehicles and one ambulance, were also damaged. At least 14 civilians, including one doctor, 5 women and 5 children, were killed and dozens injured. Residents interviewed by the Commission recalled that following this attack, some 80,000 women, men and children fled Ariha.”
At the time of the strikes, the report notes that the closest front-line fighting was at least 10 miles away. But following the first airstrike, two more attacks followed in quick succession.
The report’s analysis found impact sites on three sides of the hospital suggestive of missiles. This information is important, as the Russian military has greater targeting capabilities and more accurate weapons systems than the Syrian air force. The U.N. continues: “Credible information obtained by the Commission, including flight spotters’ reports and overflight data, indicate that at least one Russian aircraft departed from [Khmeimim] Air Base between 10:17 and 10:20 p.m., and was observed in the vicinity of Ariha town at 10:30 p.m. Witness statements subsequently confirmed that the airstrikes were launched out at 10:30 p.m., and were carried out in sequence within an interval of 10 minutes.”
Assessed against the strike profile, that time interval evinces Russia’s deliberate targeting of the hospital with the intent to maximize battle damage effect. Confronted by the evidence, the Russians predictably denied their involvement and described evidence to the contrary as an “information provocation.”
We shouldn’t let Putin get away with it.
Yes, the U.S. military sometimes makes mistakes and kills civilians in airstrikes. But it never does so with authorized intent to that effect. Russian aircrews have distinguished themselves in Syria, and now in Libya, by deliberately laying waste to an already starving and destitute people. The least the world can do is heighten sanctions that make sure Assad and Putin feel pain for what they have done and are doing.
