Aleppo suffers 'unthinkable atrocities'

The BBC has its usual non-downloadable video in an article by Zaina Erheim about the latest bombings in Syria:

Civilians in Syria's second city of Aleppo (photo) are suffering unthinkable atrocities, Amnesty International says. Their new report alleges that government forces and many rebel groups are committing war crimes on a daily basis.
The government has reportedly stepped up its bombardment of Aleppo in recent weeks in response to a rebel offensive. President Bashar al-Assad categorically denied that barrel bombs had ever been used by his forces in an interview with the BBC in February.
At least ten people, including four children and teacher, were killed when a barrel bomb hit a nursery school in the Saif al-Dawla district.
Erhaim told the BBC that she heard the sound of children's screams and saw rescuers struggling to pull victims from the rubble.
Amnesty's report says that, from January of 2014 to March of 2015, government aircraft launched continual attacks using barrel bombs - oil barrels, fuel tanks or gas cylinders packed with explosives, fuel, and metal fragments - on rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
Their targets included at least fourteen public markets, twelve transportation hubs, two dozen mosques, seventeen hospitals and medical centers, and three schools.
"I saw children without heads, body parts everywhere. It was how I imagine hell to be," a local factory worker said describing the aftermath of an attack on the al-Fardous district in 2014.
The vast majority of fatalities from the eight attacks Amnesty investigated were civilians. According to the Violations Documentation Center, an activist-run monitoring group, barrel bombings killed at least three thousand civilians and three dozen rebel fighters in Aleppo province over the same period. The city has been divided between government- and rebel-held areas since fighting erupted there in 2012.
Amnesty said evidence suggested the air campaign in Aleppo had "deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects", and noted that it was a war crime to intentionally make those not directly participating in hostilities the target of attacks.
"Such a systematic attack on the civilian population, when carried out as part of government policy as appears to have been the case in Aleppo, would also constitute a crime against humanity," it added.
Armed opposition groups in Aleppo were also accused of committing war crimes by using imprecise weapons such as mortars and improvised rockets fitted with gas canisters called "hell cannons" in attacks that killed at least six hundred civilians in 2014.
The report also documented widespread torture, arbitrary detention, and abduction of civilians by both government security personnel and rebels in Aleppo.
Amnesty said the widespread atrocities had made life for civilians in Aleppo "increasingly unbearable", with many forced to eke out an existence underground.
Many hospitals and schools have sought safety by moving into basements or bunkers
A resident described Aleppo as a "circle of hell. The streets are filled with blood. The people who have been killed are not the people who were fighting," he said.
"More than a year ago the UN passed a resolution calling for an end to human rights abuses, and specifically barrel bomb attacks, promising there would be consequences if the government failed to comply," said i, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program. "Today, the international community has turned its back on Aleppo's civilians in a cold-hearted display of indifference to an escalating human tragedy. Continued inaction is being interpreted by perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a sign they can continue to hold the civilians of Aleppo hostage without fear of any retribution."

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