Alwaght- Russian President Vladimir Putin has rebuked destruction caused by US-led coalition's airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, calling on American officials to "at least bury the dead bodies, which are still lying amid the ruins after the air strikes on residential neighborhoods."
“As for crimes, go back to Raqqa and at least bury the dead bodies, which are still lying amid the ruins after the air strikes on residential neighborhoods – and investigate these attacks,” Russia today cited the Russian leader as saying in an interview with NBC.
Raqqa, the Syrian stronghold of the terrorist group ISIS was declared on October 20 “liberated” by both the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US. However, before US-backed militias enter into the destroyed city, several hundred ISIS fighters struck a deal with the SDF to take their family members and leave to ISIS-controlled parts of Deir ez-Zor governorate. Some foreign fighters reportedly stayed behind, refusing to surrender.
Raqqa was taken from ISIS after months of constant bombardment by coalition airstrikes and artillery shelling. The UN estimates that over 80 percent of the buildings in the city are now uninhabitable while reporters on the ground say literally not one of the houses was left unscathed in the fighting.
Pre-war, the city had some 220,000 residents. The Syrian violence caused mass migration, with tens of thousands arriving in Raqqa throughout the years, but under ISIS rule the city’s reduced to 200,000 by the beginning of the US-backed militias' siege in June.
Four months later, an overwhelming majority of the civilians had fled Raqqa, while some 1,800 to 1,900 were killed in the fighting. Coalition strikes accounted for at least 1,300 of those deaths, according to Airwars group, which records and verifies reports of deaths in Iraq and Syria. If the figure included the deaths since March, when the SDF started preparations for the siege, in would be above 2,000, higher than the estimated coalition kills during the capture of Mosul in Iraq, a city several times higher.
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria recently said US-led coalition killed at least 150 civilians in the airstrikes on a school in Raqqa in March 2017.
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said We found that “the US forces had enough time and resources available, that they should have been able to take additional precautions that may have led to the air strike being called off or delayed”.
Russian President also raised the point that the battle for Iraq’s Mosul involving the US-led forces left the city “razed to the ground.”
The interview heated up when the two were speaking about Syria, when the anchor asked about alleged chemical attacks, for which the West blames the Syrian government. Those claims were rebuffed as “fake news” by the Russian leader. Putin stressed that Damascus destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons long ago, and the militants aimed “to simulate chemical attacks” which were then blamed on the Syrian army.
“All the attempts that have been made repeatedly in the recent past, and all the accusations were used to consolidate the efforts against Assad,” Putin told the journalist. As Kelly continued to ask about alleged chemical attacks that led to civilian deaths, Putin noted that there had been no thorough investigation into what had happened in Syria.
“Russia is for a full-scale investigation. If you do not know this, I am telling you this now. It is not true that we are against an objective investigation. That is a lie.”
