UN official 'horrified' by attacks on Syrian civilians

The stark warning comes amid a surge in violence as Syrian government troops, Islamic militants and rebels carried out attacks that killed and wounded dozens on Monday, including in President Bashar Assad’s coastal stronghold of Latakia.

“Attacks on civilians are unlawful, unacceptable and must stop,” Mr O’Brien said, speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Syria, during which he met senior officials and visited the central province of Homs.

Government air raids on Sunday killed at least 96 people in the eastern Damascus suburb of Douma, making it one of the deadliest single incidents since the crisis began in March 2011.

The air strikes hit a vegetable market in the suburb, which is a stronghold of the Islam Army rebel group.

Syria’s conflict has killed more than 250,000 people, according to the UN.

“I am particularly appalled by reports of air strikes yesterday, causing scores of civilian deaths and hundreds injured, right in the centre of Douma,” Mr O’Brien said.

“I am horrified by the total disrespect for civilian life in this conflict.”

He appealed to all parties to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law, and also expressed concerns for 4.6 million Syrians “stuck in hard-to-reach and besieged areas”.

Mr O’Brien also lambasted armed groups for cutting off water in Damascus, saying it was unacceptable to “use access to water and other services as a weapon of war”.

Water cuts have been used before in the Syrian civil war, with Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial centre, most affected.

UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura also condemned the Douma air strikes.

“Hitting crowded civilian markets (and) killing almost 100 of its own citizens by a government is unacceptable in any circumstances,” Mr de Mistura said, repeating calls for the warring sides to urgently start a dialogue towards a political solution.

Also on Monday, the rebels in Damascus’s wider eastern suburbs – an area known as Eastern Ghouta – imposed a curfew, fearing more government air strikes and saying the curfew was imposed out of concern for civilian lives. The rebel statement said the curfew would go on until further notice. Douma is part of Eastern Ghouta.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 22 air raids on Eastern Ghouta on Monday, including seven in Douma. The Local Co-ordination Committees said Douma was hit with mortar shells.

Douma-based activist Baraa Abdul-Rahman said the streets there were empty and most people were staying indoors. “There is a situation of terror and fear in the town,” he said.

In Turkey, the head of the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, blasted the government over Douma’s air raids and urged the international community to help bring officials behind the “massacres and war crimes” to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Any talk about political and peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict in light of the daily and systematic regime massacres ... is meaningless,” said the coalitions’ Khaled Khoja.

Syria’s minister of justice Najm El-Deen Ahmad, meanwhile, said the authorities are not worried about any criminal charges against them at the ICC.

“It is the criminals who should be worried, and we have the evidence that could prove their involvement,” he said, referring to the opposition.

Mr Ahmad accused Turkey of setting up camps for training gunmen who later crossed into Syria to kill and plunder Syrian factories, and added that his ministry is preparing to file lawsuits against Turkey within a few months, both in local and international courts.

Syrian state TV reported that attackers shelled the government-held neighbourhood of Hamadaniyeh in Aleppo, killing 10 and wounding 17 on Monday. It also reported rebel shelling of the coastal city of Latakia, which killed six and wounded 19.