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Syria attacks hospitals, denies healthcare as 'weapon of war': U.N.

13 September 2013 18:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Syrian government forces are bombing and shelling hospitals in rebel-held areas to stop sick and wounded getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes, U.N. investigators said on Friday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad purposefully denied people medical care as a "weapon of war", they added in a report. They also had details of a smaller number of incidents when rebel forces attacked hospitals.

"The pattern of attacks indicates that government forces deliberately targeted hospitals and medical units to gain military advantage by depriving anti-government armed groups and their perceived supporters of medical assistance," the report said.

The attacks started as violence mounted in Syria's civil war in early 2012 and were continuing, it added.

Neither Assad's nor rebel forces immediately responded to the allegations, to be discussed on Monday in Geneva at a debate at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The Syrian army has occupied hospitals, using them as bases for snipers, tanks and soldiers, according to the report. Ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors have been attacked, arrested, tortured or disappeared in "insidious" violations of international law.

"Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places containing the sick and the wounded and against medical units using the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem is a war crime in non-international armed conflict," the independent investigators said, referring to a legal term for civil war.