UN report documents war crimes in 10-year Syrian conflict

A United Nations report on the decadelong Syrian crisis said that the warring parties have committed actions that are likely to constitute crimes against humanity, war crimes and other international offenses, including genocide, underlining that military solutions in the country have led to 10 years of death, denial and destruction.

The U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry report prepared by the body's Human Rights Council (OHCHR) and published Thursday stated that participants of the civil war violated human rights in the harshest ways possible.

"On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Syrian conflict and crisis, the Commission criticizes the warring parties' readiness to sacrifice fundamental rights for short-lived political gains or under the pretext of fighting terrorism, and the enabling selectivity shown by those supporting the Government of Syria or the different warring parties. It calls for a reinvigoration of international efforts to end the conflict and put the country on a path toward peace and justice," the report said.

Criticizing first the Assad regime forces and later all other sides, the report said that they conducted the conflict using weaponry that minimized risks to their own fighters at the expense of civilians.

"They consistently sought territorial control, at the expense of the rights of the population. After 10 years, more than half of the pre-conflict population is internally or externally displaced, cities have been reduced to rubble and a constellation of armed actors continues to prey on the population. Syrians in population centers have suffered vast aerial and artillery bombardments; they have endured chemical weapons attacks, modern-day sieges leading to starvation and shameful restrictions on humanitarian aid – both cross-line and cross-border, the latter even with the approval of the Security Council," it added.

Describing the cause of the conflict that emerged a decade ago as the regime's brutal suppression of peaceful protests, the report said that nearly 12 million Syrians were displaced during the process.

Regarding the use of chemical weapons in the war, the report said that chemical weapons were used on at least 38 occasions and it was documented that at least 32 of these attacks were conducted by regime forces.

While the regime and its ally Russia oversaw airstrikes on civilian areas, the report also said that extremist opposition parties and the PKK terrorist group's Syrian YPG branch committed war crimes and human rights violations.

Accordingly, these groups caused the deaths of many innocent civilians, while the YPG also forcefully recruited local people, including children.