(Bloomberg) -- Syria's government and its allies were probably behind several attacks against United Nations-supported civilian sites including hospitals and schools, according to the summary of a UN inquiry that stopped short of directly blaming Russia.
While the inquiry didn't single out Russia, it's Syria's only ally with substantial air power and was the only one informed of the coordinates of some facilities, such as the Ariha Protection Center, a “child-friendly space” bombed in 2019, according to a copy of the inquiry released Monday.
The UN inquiry began in September after a majority of UN Security Council members pressured Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to undertake it after the bombing of facilities where GPS coordinates had been shared with the Russian and Syrian militaries to avoid accidental hits. In the months since, Russia escalated its fight against the UN's work on Syria and pressured Guterres to narrow the scope of the inquiry, according to diplomats.
Like all permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia has outsized influence and can veto decisions by the 15-member body.
While the investigators were unable to gain access to Syria to carry out their inquiry, they said they found enough evidence to suggest that the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies were likely involved in most of the bombings they probed. In one case, in which the Nayrab Palestine Refugee Camp in Aleppo was hit, the board of inquiry concluded that Syrian opposition groups or Islamist fighters were likely to blame.
Officials at the Russian and Syrian missions to the UN didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The two nations have frequently denied targeting civilian facilities in the conflict in the past, or blamed rebels for taking shelter in them to try to avoid being targeted.
Russia has had a strong hand in backing Assad's efforts to consolidate power since entering the conflict on the Syrian leader's behalf in 2015. Moscow's involvement helped turn the tide in the conflict just as Assad's regime appeared to be nearing a breaking point.
In a separate report published in March, a panel appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council concluded that Russia's military conducted “indiscriminate” bombardments against civilians and human rights violations in Syria.
The conflict -- which has seen fighting by forces from Syria, Russia, Turkey, the U.S., Iran, Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked groups -- has continued for more than nine years and has left more than 380,000 people dead, including more than 115,000 civilians, according to a tally by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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