Strikes on Syria displaced camp ‘likely a war crime’: UN

Air strikes on a camp for displaced people in Syria’s Idlib province were almost certainly not accidental and likely amounted to a war crime, the UN rights chief said Friday.

Air strikes on a camp for displaced people in Syria’s Idlib province were almost certainly not accidental and likely amounted to a war crime, the UN rights chief said Friday.

People walk though burnt tents at a camp for internally displaced people near Sarmada in Syria's Idlib province in this undated still image taken from video on May 6, 2016.(REUTERS)

Syria’s military has denied any involvement in the Thursday raids that killed at least 28 civilians.

Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said responsibility for the strikes remained unverified but cited “initial reports” indicating that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were to blame.

“Given these tent settlements have been in these locations for several weeks, and can be clearly viewed from the air, it is extremely unlikely that these murderous attacks were an accident. It is far more likely they were deliberate and amount to a war crime,” the UN rights chief said in a statement.

Zeid has in recent months grown increasingly vocal about the plight of those displaced by Syria’s brutal conflict and again on Friday issued a plea on behalf of those in the country who seemingly have nowhere left to seek refuge.

“It is hard to find any more words to describe the horror facing civilians in Syria,” he said.

“Bombed and slaughtered in their homes, shot in the streets and tortured in prisons; bombed in their hospital beds; bombed in the camps they flee to,” he added.