Published: December 20, 2012
GENEVA — Syria’s
civil war has evolved from a battle over political change into a
conflict that is “overtly sectarian,” pulling fighters from across the
Middle East and North Africa into the fray, United Nations investigators said on Thursday.
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The risk of political confrontation erupting into ethnic and religious
strife had always been present but “as battles between government forces
and anti-government armed groups approach the end of their second year,
the conflict has become overtly sectarian in nature,” the
U.N.-appointed panel led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro said.
In an interim report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on
developments over the last two months, the investigators said attacks
and reprisals had led communities to arm themselves and to be armed by
different parties to the conflict. “Entire communities are at risk of
being forced out of the country or killed inside the country,” it said.
“Feeling threatened and under attack, ethnic and religious minority
groups have increasingly aligned themselves with parties to the
conflict, deepening sectarian divides,” the panel said.
The sharpest split is between the Alawite sect, a Shiite Muslim minority
from which President Bashar al-Assad’s most senior political and
military associates are drawn, and the country’s Sunni Muslim majority,
mostly aligned with the opposition, the panel noted, but it said the
conflict had drawn in other minorities including Armenians, Christians,
Druze, Palestinians, Kurds and Turkmen.
Most foreign fighters joining the conflict were Sunni Muslims from
neighboring Middle Eastern and North African countries, many of them
linked to extremist groups, the panel said, and often operating
independently of the opposition Free Syrian Army but coordinating
attacks with its forces.
Lebanon’s Shiite group Hezbollah had confirmed its members were fighting
for the Assad government, the panel said, and it was investigating
reports that Iraqi Shiites had also entered Syria. Iran had also
confirmed that members of its Revolutionary Guards Corps are providing
the Assad regime with “intellectual and advisory support.”
Making their fourth submission to the Human Rights Council, the panel of
four investigators said government forces and supporting militias had
attacked Sunni civilians and opposition forces had attacked Alawite and
other pro-government communities. It said Kurdish groups had clashed
with both government and anti-government forces, Turkmen militias were
fighting with anti-government forces, and Palestinians, increasingly
split in their view of the Assad government, were being armed by both
pro- and anti-government forces.
Summing up developments over the past two months, the panel said
opposition groups, helped by access to increased amounts of weaponry,
had been able to challenge government control of sensitive
infrastructure such as oil fields, major highways, airports and military
camps. Government forces, focused on securing major cities, were
reportedly engaging in fewer ground actions and resorting more to
shelling and air attacks.
The panel said it had received a significant increase in accounts of
civilians directly targeted in aerial attacks and had heard of many
incidents of civilians suffering multiple casualties from shelling by
government forces which had targeted state hospitals as well as field
hospitals in opposition-controlled areas. In addition, “consistent
accounts of summary executions by anti-government forces continue to be
collected,” the investigators said.
“As the conflict drags on, the parties have become ever more violent and
unpredictable, which has led to their conduct increasingly being in
breach of international law,” the panel concluded.
Comment: This is the same terrorist group that the entire Obama Administration said had been defeated-well, looks like another fine mess you have gotten us into Mr. President.
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