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Kerry Calls for War Crimes Probe Into Russian Activity in Syria

by VOA News

   U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is calling for a war crimes
   investigation of Russia and Syria. He made the comment in a meeting in
   Washington with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault
   Friday.

   Following an attack on a Syrian hospital Thursday night which left 20
   dead and 100 wounded, Kerry said that people must be held accountable
   for the violence ravaging the country.

   "Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why
   they keep hitting hospitals, and medical facilities, and women and
   children," he said, adding that these acts "beg for an appropriate
   investigation of war crimes."

   WATCH: Kerry on hospital bombing in Syria

   An agreement between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
   last month would have created a new counterterrorism alliance in Syria,
   had fighting stopped for a week - long enough for humanitarian aid to
   reach affected areas. Neither condition was met, and airstrikes have
   continued.

   Kerry ended bilateral discussions with Russia on their military
   partnership earlier this week.

   "They are beyond the accidental now, way beyond, years beyond the
   accidental," Kerry said. "This is a targeted strategy to terrorize
   civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their
   military objectives."

   As many as half a million people have been killed in Syria since the
   beginning of the war in 2011.

   The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said
   Thursday that eastern Aleppo could be "totally destroyed" by the end of
   the year due to the "cruel, constant" military activities in the city.

   WATCH: De Mistura statement on Syria

   Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told
   journalists in Moscow this week that any airstrike or missile strike
   against Syrian government-controlled territory would present a "clear
   threat" to Russian service personnel present in Syria.