Syrian Opposition Accuses Russia of Using Incendiary Bombs

The main Syrian opposition negotiating committee has called on the United Nations to investigate claims that Russia deployed incendiary weapons in Syria.

The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) delivered a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday accusing Russia of using both airdropped incendiary bombs and cluster munitions on opposition-held areas of Syria.

“Russian air forces have repeatedly deployed incendiary weapons and cluster munitions to kill, maim and terrorise Syrian civilians, including in at least 10 documented incidents,” Riad Hijab, coordinator of the opposition HNC, wrote in the letter.

Both types of weapons are banned under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. According to Reuters, incendiary bombs are made with materials intended to burn objects when they are deployed, and cluster munitions are larger bombs filled with smaller explosives that scatter over the area where they are dropped.

Russia did not comment on the allegations, but both Turkey and the United States said they would take the claims seriously.

“It is unacceptable for the sake of humanity that the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, uses all kinds of weapons and ammunition against civilians just like the regime,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

U.N. Plans Humanitarian Airdrops for Qamishli

The United Nations announced on Friday that it would begin humanitarian airdrops in Qamishli, a town in northeastern Syria that has been besieged for more than two years.

The U.N., in coordination with the World Food Program (WFP), is planning 25 airdrops, each carrying 40 tonnes of aid, over the next month.

They are set to begin “in the next few days,” WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told Agence France Presse.

Qamishli is located near the Syrian border with Turkey; roads leading to the town have been inaccessible since 2014, according to AFP.

“We are just about to launch an air bridge into Qamishli from Damascus,” Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said. “The reason for this is that we have run out of meaningful means to reach people over land.”

In order to reach the town from the U.N.’s base in Damascus, the aid convoys would need to pass through Raqqa and Deir Ezzor province, both of which are largely controlled by the so-called Islamic State group.

ISIS Kidnapped Nearly 1,000 Kurds In June, Reports Claim

Over the past three weeks, ISIS has reportedly captured some 900 Syrian Kurds in the northern province of Aleppo.

ISIS has forced many of those kidnapped to dig trenches around their territory near the town of al-Bab, and young men over the age of 12 have been sent to fight alongside militants on the frontline, a Kurdish spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told the Associated Press (AP).

The kidnappings began in early June, just as the SDF, a United States-backed coalition of Kurdish and rebel forces, began an operation to push ISIS militants out of their stronghold in the town of Manbij in the Aleppo region.

“Whenever Daesh is defeated, they retaliate against civilians,” SDF spokesman Sherfan Darwish told the AP.

Recommended Reads:

• Syria Direct: ‘My Blood is Nothing But Currency’: Inside Syria’s Human Smuggling network
• Al-Monitor: Are Major Players Shifting Strategies in Syria?
• Middle East Monitor: Palestinians of Syria: Refugees Once More
• United Nations News Center: ‘Medieval’ Sieges, Barrel Bombs are ‘Disgusting Reality’ in Syria – Senior UN Officials
• Reuters: U.N. to Clarify Syria Talks Outlook on June 29