Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad of committing war crimes in their assault on rebel-held territory, including hospitals and aid workers, and called for an investigation.
“Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals, medical facilities, children and women,” Kerry said before a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. “These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes and those that commit these would and should be held accountable for these actions. They’re beyond the accidental now, way beyond, years beyond the accidental. This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives.”
Assad has been bombing civilians for years, but the United States and other Western powers have blamed Russia for the attacks on aid workers ever since the bombing of a United Nations humanitarian convoy that was supposed to enter the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo. That bombing brought a swift end to an attempted cease-fire agreement with Russia.
Other U.S. officials have used the term “war crimes,” but Friday’s statement marks an escalation of rhetoric from Kerry, who has tried to continue negotiating an end to the Syrian crisis.
“So we look forward today to a very frank conversation on about what potential next steps are and we intend to jointly figure out how best to deliver the strongest message possible about the actions that might be taken to deal with this bombing of Aleppo … this entire siege of innocent people,” Kerry said.
Russian officials warned the United States not to attack Assad’s military by implying that the Russians would shoot down U.S. aircraft that attempt to carry out those strikes. “The illusions of dilettantes about the existence of ‘stealth’ aircraft may encounter a disappointing reality,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters Thursday.
Western leaders are increasingly angry about the bombings in Aleppo, however. American, British and French officials walked out of an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council in protest of the attacks.
“This is obscene,” Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council at the meeting. “These airstrikes on residential neighborhoods may well be war crimes.”
