Syria Government Forces Execute 10 Children of Rebels Near Aleppo

Ten children were among at least 48 people killed in the Syrian village of Rityan, north of Aleppo, when government forces killed six families of rebel fighters, AFP reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims the bodies were discovered when villages returned to Rityan after the government forces withdrew from the town the day before.

“The brief seizure of Rityan was part of an abortive army offensive launched this week to try to encircle the rebel-held east of Aleppo and relieve two besieged Shiite villages to its north,” AFP writes.

By Friday every village except one taken by government forces had been recaptured by rebels. However, government airplanes continue to target opposition-held areas of Aleppo city and elsewhere in the country.

Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, is at the heart of clashes between government forces and insurgents that include Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamist brigades and Western-backed rebels.

The Syrian army had made rapid advances in recent weeks near Aleppo, as they launched an offensive aimed at cutting a crucial rebel supply inside the city and encircling opposition-held territory.

The fighting comes as U.N. Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura announced last week that Syria was prepared to suspend its aerial bombardment of Aleppo for a period of six weeks as part of a trial cease-fire.

De Mistura has been working since October to advance a proposal for local cease-fire, or “incremental freeze zones” across Syria, starting with the city of Aleppo, in an attempt to halt the fighting and provide humanitarian aid to civilians. Civilians inside Aleppo continue to be targeted by barrel bombs despite a resolution calling for all sides to end their “indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs.”

5,812 civilians (1,733 children, 969 women and 3,110 men) were killed in barrel bombings and (other) air raids over the past year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Turkish Forces Enter Syria to Rescue Soldiers Guarding Tomb

Turkish forces crossed into Syria overnight to evacuate around 40 soldiers guarding the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, which had been besieged for months by Islamic State militants, the New York Times reports.

The action, which involved tanks, drones and reconnaissance planes as well as several hundred ground troops, was the first incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the start of the civil war there nearly four years ago.

The operation, called “Sah Firat,” involved heavy weaponry, a large convey of troops and several hundred ground troops that entered Syria through Kobani, the Kurdish territory in Syria. It was the first incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the beginning of the conflict nearly four years ago.

“The remains of Suleyman Shah, along with ancestral relics, have been brought back to our country pending their temporary transfer to a new site in Syria,” said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey has been reluctant to participate in the U.S.-led military coalition strikes against the Islamic State, partly because it wants military action to include targeting Syrian government forces as well as the militants, and has called for a no-fly zone.

However, Turkish governments officials said last year that the Islamic State was encroaching on the mausoleum and Davutoglu warned that Turkey would take any measure necessary to safeguard the tomb. “Should there be an attack, either from the regime, or radical groups or elsewhere, it would be countered equally,” he said.

Though the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the first Ottoman Sultan, is inside Syria, Turkey considers his tomb sovereign Turkish territory.

The Syrian government decried the operation as an act of “flagrant aggression” and said it would hold Turkey responsible for its repercussions and failing to wait for an agreement from Damascus before proceeding.

Syria has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting insurgent groups that have seized control over large swaths of territory in northern and eastern Syria, including the Islamic State.

According to the New York Times, it is uncertain whether the Turkish troops had confronted the militants who were in control of territory surrounding the tomb.

CNN Turk reported, citing military officials, that “the military destroyed what was left of the site to prevent the militants from using the enclave, and one soldier was killed by accident during the operation.”

U.N. Investigators Considering Revealing List of Alleged Syrian War Criminals

“United Nations investigators are considering revealing the names of an estimated 200 individuals suspected of committing war crimes in Syria,” the BBC reports.

While there is normally a policy of not naming alleged war criminals, investigators from the U.N.’s Commisson for Inquiry on Syria said there had been an “exponential rise” in atrocities committed in Syria.

The investigators have refused to say how many suspects were named, but said they had prepared five lists of names including “a variety of perpetrators from different groups.”

“Four lists have already been compiled but have been kept secret because the alleged perpetrators should be given due process, said Vitit Muntarbhorn, a member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria. A new list would consolidate the first four,” CNN reports.

“The five lists, compiled since the Commission began investigating in 2011, are understood to contain approximately 30 to 40 names each, ” the BBC reports, adding that four of the five list had already been passed to the U.N. High Commisionner for Human Rights.

The announcement came as the commission released its ninth report on the situation in Syria, stressing that both the Syrian government and the miltants’ groups inside Syria – including the Islamic State and Jabhat al Nusra – had committed atrocities, as well as smaller factions. “The report warned that despite the Commission’s “long-standing position” not to name suspects, maintaining that policy would “reinforce the impunity” of alleged war criminals,” the BBC reports.

An estimated 10.8 million people inside Syria are in need, and 3.2 million have fled to neighbouring countries, while more than 50% of those in country live in extreme poverty and half of children in Syria are not attending school.

Human-rights organizations have repeatedly accused the Syrian government of carrying out indiscriminate air strikes on civilians living in opposition-held territory, killings thousands in the process.

“Noting the rise in atrocities over the four-year conflict, the Commission’s report said the scale of war crimes in Syria “raises questions about the inadequacy of the response of the international community,” says the BBC.

Recommended Reads:

• Boston Globe: A Daring Plan to Rebuild Syria – No Matter Who Wins the War
• Guardian: Turkish Troops Enter Syria to Rescue Soldiers Guarding Tomb
• AFP: U.K. Worries How to Stop Teenage Girls Travelling to Syria
• Wall Street Journal: How Jihadists Slip Through Europe’s Dragnet and Into Syria
• AFP: Swedish Journalist Freed After Weeklong Captivity in Syria
• Reuters: Syria Says Will Harvest Enough Wheat, Iran Credit Line Good
• Reuters: Syrian Kurds Attack Islamic State in Northeast