War of annihilation
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Cover photo: Raqqa’s residents surveying the destruction in the city centre. © Amnesty International First published in 2018 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW, UK
Original language: English
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“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 3 CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 2. BACKGROUND 10 3. METHODOLOGY 13 4. CIVILIANS UNDER FIRE 14 ASWAD FAMILY 16
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BADRAN FAMILY 31
FAYAD FAMILY 40
5. JOINT COALITION-SDF MILITARY OPERATION IN RAQQA 48 6. COALITION RESPONSES TO CONCERNS OVER CIVILIAN CASUALTIES 52 7. DIRE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION 56 LETHAL LEGACY: UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE 57
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8. LEGAL FRAMEWORK 61 APPLICABLE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW 61
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PROPORTIONALITY 63
PRECAUTIONS 63
JOINT AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY OF COALITION MEMBERS 63
DUTY TO INVESTIGATE, PROSECUTE AND PROVIDE REPARATION 64
9. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 66 RECOMMENDATIONS TO MEMBER STATES OF THE US-LED COALITION 66
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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE RAQQA CIVIL COUNCIL 68
“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 4 MAP
“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 5 1.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “I don’t understand why they bombed us… Didn’t the surveillance planes see that we were civilian families?” Rasha Badran, air strikes survivor
The four-month military operation to oust the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) from Raqqa, the Syrian city which IS had declared its capital, killed hundreds of civilians, injured many more and destroyed much of the city. During the course of the operation, from June to October 2017, homes, private and public buildings and infrastructure were reduced to rubble or damaged beyond repair. Residents were trapped, as fighting raged in Raqqa’s streets between IS militants and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters, and US-led Coalition’s air and artillery strikes rocked the city. With escape routes mined by IS and the group’s snipers shooting at those trying to flee, civilians fled from place to place within the city, desperately seeking refuge or escape. Some were killed in their homes; some in the very places where they had sought refuge, and others as they tried to flee. Shortly before the military campaign, US Defense Secretary James Mattis promised a “war of annihilation” against IS, signalling an increase in intensity in the US-led Coalition’s military campaign against the group. The impact on civilians was devastating. Amnesty International researchers travelled to Raqqa in February 2018 and spent two weeks visiting 42 locations of strikes and interviewing 112 witnesses and survivors. The organisation analysed satellite imagery and reviewed other publicly available material. This report documents the experiences of four families whose cases are emblematic of wider patterns. The cases provide prima facie evidence that several Coalition attacks which killed and injured civilians violated international humanitarian law. Although IS exacerbated the challenges inherent to urban combat by operating amongst civilians and using them as human shields, their tactics were known well ahead of the Raqqa campaign. Coalition forces did not take adequate account of civilians present in the city and failed to take the precautions necessary to minimise harm to civilians and civilian objects. The Aswad were a family of traders who had worked all their lives to construct a building in Raqqa. Some family members stayed in Raqqa when the military operation began in order to protect their property, seeking shelter from the shelling in the basement of their building. On the evening of 28 June 2017, the building was destroyed by a Coalition air strike, killing eight people, most of them children. Mohammed Othman Aswad, the only survivor, told Amnesty International: “I was sitting on an empty oil tin by the basement door chatting to Abu Mahmoud who was crouching next to me. His wife and [five] children were down in the basement with my brother Jamal… The strike came out of the blue.” Mohammed’s youngest brother, Ammar, who had previously fled the city, was killed as he stepped on a mine laid by IS when he returned to Raqqa to try to recover the bodies days later. The Hashish family lost 18 members. Nine were killed in a Coalition air strike, seven were killed as they tried to flee via a road which had been mined by IS, and two others were killed by a mortar seemingly launched by the SDF. Yüklə 5,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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