GENEVA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- While violence has been reduced through de-escalation zones inside Syria, the parties to the conflict continue to perpetrate unthinkable crimes against civilians, a UN report issued Wednesday said.
In its latest report, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria pointed out that the crimes include forced displacement, deliberate attacks against civilians and the use of chemical weapons.
Charting the major trends and patterns of international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed in Syria, the latest report said between March and July 2017, warring parties continued to lay sieges and to instrumentalize humanitarian aid to compel surrender.
According to the report, terrorist groups Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continued to employ brutal tactics against civilians.
Terrorist and other armed groups targeted religious minorities through car and suicide bombings, the use of snipers and hostage-taking, including in areas controlled by the Syrian government, the report said.
In al-Rashidin (Aleppo), it added, a single car bombing killed 96 people, including 68 internally displaced children, from previously besieged Fu'ah and Kafraya (Idlib). Afterwards, at least 17 civilians were taken hostage by armed groups, while others remain missing.
According to the report, Syrian government forces continued to deliberately target civilians, including through the use of chemical weapons against civilians in opposition-held areas.
The report also found that U.S. forces failed to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects when attacking alleged terrorists and destroying part of a mosque complex in al-Jinah, Aleppo in March, in violation of international humanitarian law.
By highlighting the violations committed during the reporting period, the report emphasized the pressing need for genuine, concerted, and sustained action from national and international actors to find a political solution and to put an end to grave violations of human rights and the laws of war.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic is mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic.
