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UN Panel Accuses Syrian Army, and Rebels, of War Crimes
(Washington Post) Louisa Loveluck - The UN said Wednesday that the Syrian army and rebel forces both committed war crimes as they fought over the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. Investigators from the UN Commission of Inquiry said the Syrian military campaign to seize Eastern Ghouta after five years of rebel control involved indiscriminate attacks on civilian homes, markets and hospitals. "It is completely abhorrent that besieged civilians were indiscriminately attacked, and systematically denied food and medicine," said Paulo Pinheiro, who leads the commission. Relief organizations said bombing by Syrian and allied forces killed more than a thousand people and wounded almost five times as many. The rebels' April 8 surrender was precipitated by a chemical attack by government forces that killed scores. The UN panel also said rebel forces had arbitrarily arrested and tortured civilians in areas under its control. They also conducted indiscriminate reprisal attacks on densely populated areas controlled by the government, killing and wounding hundreds.