air strikes on Syrian people

More civilians caught up in the Syrian conflict were killed by US-led coalitions than by Isis or Russian-led forces in the last

month, according to figures released by a human rights organisation.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), found Isis killed 119 civilians in Syria in March, including 19 children and 7

women, with Russian forces believed to have killed 224 civilians in the same month, including 51 children and 42 women.

The SNHR found the international coalition forces, led by the US, killed 260 civilians, including 70 children and 34 women.

US President Donald Trump has remained silent on the calamity.

Forty-nine people died last week when American warplanes fired on a target in Al Jinah, a village in
western Aleppo Province. United States officials said the attack had hit a building where Qaeda
operatives were meeting, but residents said the warplanes had struck a mosque where hundreds of
people had gathered for a weekly religious meeting. At least 30 Syrian civilians were killed in an
airstrike by the United States-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in a rural area of Raqqa
Province early Tuesday, according to residents, activists and state television.

The coalition said it had no indications that an airstrike hit civilians, but in its daily report on coalition
strikes, the United States military acknowledged that strikes were carried out in the area. It said that
coalition warplanes carried out 19 airstrikes on Tuesday an unusually high number for a single day
on a range of Islamic State facilities near the city of Raqqa.

The attack, which hit a school in the town of Mansoura, where civilians had taken shelter on Tuesday
night, was the second time in a week that Syrians had accused the United States of involvement in a
strike that killed dozens of noncombatants.

Human Rights Watch has extensively documented attacks carried

out in the Syrian conflict with Russian support that have put
civilians at risk. Russian forces have, in joint operations with
Syrian government forces, attacked hospitals and schools, used
internationally banned cluster munitions and incendiary weapons,
and otherwise carried out indiscriminate attacks. Russia
announced in late July that Russia and Syria would open three
humanitarian corridors out of eastern Aleppo, in northern Syria,
to allow civilians to flee the besieged area. But Russia has shown
minimal commitment to assisting civilians once they have been
displaced.

Child Abuse
 It is alleged that youngsters had been tortured, maimed and sexually abused by President Bashar al-
Assad's forces - it is also claimed children as young as 11 had been detained by the authorities on
suspicion of having links with armed groups.

Youngsters in government custody had reportedly suffered beatings with metal cables, whips, and wooden and metal
batons - they had also been subjected to electric shocks and sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape, the
ripping out of fingernails and toenails, mock executions, cigarette burns, sleep deprivation and solitary confinement,
and exposure to the torture of relatives, the report said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the summary highlights that the "use of
weaponry and military tactics that are disproportionate and indiscriminate by Government
forces and associated militias has resulted in countless killings and the maiming of children,
and has obstructed children's access to education and health services."
It also warned that children experienced a high level of distress by witnessing the killing and
injuring of members of their families and peers.

Use of chemical weapons

The Assad regime has been accused of using chemical agents on rebels and civilians several times over
more than six years of civil war in Syria. The first prominent attack came in 2013 in Ghouta, a Damascus
suburbabout a year after Barack Obama declared that using such weapons would cross a red line and
would change our calculus about intervening. That attack killed 1,000 people. The latest, on Tuesday in
Idlib province, is said to have killed dozens, and came days after Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the
UN, said that Americas priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out.

News reports at the time said Syria had 1,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, sarin,
and VX, the nerve agent. There were other problems with the agreement, as well: Among several other
deadlines in the agreement, Syria missed the June 30, 2014, deadline for the weapons destruction.

Despite the agreement, however, there were subsequent reports that Assad used chlorine gas against
civilians. The deal struck with the international community did not include chlorine because the Assad
regime hadnt added it to a list it submitted to international monitors of the chemical weapons it
possessed. News reports at the time said Syria had 1,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard
gas, sarin, and VX, the nerve agent. There were other problems with the agreement, as well: Among
several other deadlines in the agreement, Syria missed the June 30, 2014, deadline for the weapons
destruction. As Paul Wolfowitz wrote in May 2014 in The Wall Street Journal:

Usa and Russia involvement in Syrian crisis

On 30 September 2015, Russia launched its first airstrikes against targets in Rastan, Talbiseh, and
Zafaraniya in Homs province of Syria
 Settlement of migrants
Since 2011, Russia has not offered one resettlement place for Syrian refugeesRussias contribution to meeting
the needs of refugees displaced by the Syrian conflict has been negligible, while its military involvement in the
conflict has been significant
Russia is extensively involved in the Syrian conflict but has done virtually nothing to help the 11 million
people who have lost their homes and livelihoods as a result, said Bill Frelick, refugee rights program
director at Human Rights Watch. Russia has the resources to do much more, but it has yet to show any
inclination to pull its weight.
Russian officials have rejected any responsibility to do more to help refugees, claiming that Russia is doing its
part simply by assisting the [Syrian] government in combating terrorist groups. Russia contends that the
burden of the Syrian refugee crisis should fall on those countries whose policies contributed to the war in
Syria, without acknowledging that Russia has become a party to the conflict
While the Russian government is happy to send its forces to participate in the conflict, when asked to step
up its humanitarian response it rejects any responsibility for assisting vulnerable people who flee their homes
in search of safety, Frelick said. Russia can and should increase its contributions and help to ensure that
Syrias displaced can live in dignity and peace.

Leading Republican presidential candidates called on President Barack Obama to suspend the
plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming year and some Republican lawmakers
began moves in Congress to try to defund the policy.

It is no wonder that nobody knows, as there are not many people to send word back: Since
2011, France has given refugee status to 4,500 Syrians, a very small number of the 3 million
people who have left the country.

Now that France has committed to take in 24,000 people (added to the 9,000 it said it would
take in this summer), there is an impetus to convince people to come, and stay.