PHOTO: The remains of the Khamouna camp on Thursday
UPDATE 1530 GMT: Russia has denied that any warplanes flew over the Kamouna refugee camp struck on Thursday, killing more than 30 people, and suggested that the area was shelled by the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said:
We have attentively studied the information from the air space monitoring data in this area for May 4 and 5, 2016. There were no flights by Russian or any other aircraft.
Judging by the damage shown in photographs and video, the camp may have been shelled either on purpose or by mistake by multiple rocket launchers which are currently being used very actively in this area by terrorists from Al-Nusra.
Video of the camp from Thursday showed a warplane overhead, just after the initial attack. The White Helmets civil defense organization said it was of an aircraft carrying out another strike as rescuers gathered.
The Defense Ministry has often denied Russian or regime aerial attacks on civilian targets, blaming others without evidence. On April 28, a day after missiles killed 55 people and destroyed the al-Quds Hospital in east Aleppo, Konashenkov said the assault was by US-led coalition aircraft.
Russia later said that satellite photographs showed there had been no damage to the hospital.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: More than 30 displaced Syrians were killed on Thursday in an airstrike on a refugee camp, in what a senior UN official said may be a “war crime”.
Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s head of humanitarian affairs, called for an inquiry into the attack on the Kamouna camp, near the town of Sarmada in Idlib Province in northwest Syria.
Videos showed rows of smoking and damaged tents, with clothing, cooking pots, and body parts on the ground. A truck was full of wounded people moaning and crying.
Accounts differed as to whether the airstrike was carried out by Russian or regime warplanes. The Local Coordination Committees, which verified the deaths and scores of injured, initially said it “was believed” that Moscow was responsible. However, Mamun al-Khatib, director of the Aleppo-based pro-opposition Shahba Press, said:
Two regime aircraft fired four missiles on the camp in the village of al-Kammouna.
Two missiles fell near the the camp causing people to panic and two more fell inside where a dozen tents caught fire.
The White Helmets civil defense organization said warplanes returned for further attacks as rescuers moved through the camp.
Camps near Turkey— in Latakia, Idlib, and Aleppo Provinces — have been filled with an estimated 100,000 displaced this spring, amid the fighting throughout Aleppo. Turkey, which hosts more than 2.7 million refugees, has closed the border.
The attack came hours after the Syrian military declared, at the urging of the US and Russia, an extension of a temporary truce to Aleppo city. However, as soon as the army spoke, President Assad made clear that any ceasefire would not be observed for long.
Assad said, in a telegram to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that he would not accept less than “attaining final victory” and “crushing the aggression” in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition blamed the regime for the mass killing in a statement and said, “Such a cowardly act clearly demonstrates that there cannot be any talk about a political process while the Assad regime and its allies carry on with their crimes against the Syrian people.”
UN’s O’Brien Criticizes “Abominable Act”
The suspicion will fall initially on the Syrian government and we will want to make sure that they, or whoever it is, are fully held to account for this absolutely abominable act.
Be in no doubt that all these terrible acts, wherever they happen and whoever perpetrates them, will not be forgotten and the people who perpetrate them will be held to account.
British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond juxtaposed the attack with the regime’s promotion of a concert by a Russian orchestra in the historic city of Palmyra, captured by the Syrian military and foreign allies from the Islamic State in late March:
Reports of the bombing of a refugee camp in Samarda this evening are horrifying. The Asad Regime’s contempt for efforts to restore the cessation of hostilities in Syria is clear for all to see.
This attack took place against the backdrop of a concert in Palmyra, a tasteless attempt to distract attention from the continued suffering of millions of Syrians. It shows that there are no depths to which the regime will not sink. It is time for those with influence over Asad to say enough is enough.
Images of the camp after the airstrike (Warning — Graphic):
Warplanes returning for another strike amid rescue operations:
