Posted March 02, 2017 10:46:51

Photo: The attack in September stopped aid from getting to civilians. (Reuters: Ammar Abdullah)

Syrian Government forces were behind a "deliberate" air strike on a humanitarian convoy which killed 14 aid workers and halted relief operations in Aleppo last September, a new UN report has found.

The new UN inquiry documents a litany of war crimes during the battle for Aleppo, committed by both Syrian government and opposition forces.

For months, the Syrian and Russian air forces relentlessly bombarded eastern Aleppo as part of a strategy to force surrender.

"Hundreds of civilians, many of them children, lost their lives to daily bombardments," UN panel chairman Paulo Pinheiro said.

In a significant new finding, investigators said there was proof Damascus was responsible for the September 19 air strikes in Aleppo province that deliberately targeted a humanitarian convoy.

The investigators ruled out Russian involvement, saying the attack was "meticulously planned and ruthlessly carried out by the Syrian air force".

Almost no-one was left unscathed.

Fourteen aid workers were killed, most of the remaining ones were injured. Civilians all across Syria suffered from the suspension of delivery of humanitarian aid.

Opposition forces were also accused of numerous war crimes.

Continuous shelling fired by armed groups into western Aleppo and Sheikh Maqsoud killed and maimed countless civilians.

There was evidence rebels used the population of the city's east as "human shields" — arresting, threatening and even killing those who tried to leave — and that they stockpiled food as civilians began to starve.

The inquiry also found civilians who had crossed into regime areas were arrested, conscripted and even killed by pro-government groups.

Forced evacuations amounted to war crime: UN

The commission noted the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from the last opposition-held suburbs in eastern Aleppo amounted to the war crime of forced displacement.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo was among the last civilians forced out of the east.

Now living in rebel-held Idlib, where government bombardments continue, he said he was angry at the UN and wished they had done more to stop the horror that unfolded.

"Now I think [the report has] got no value. And such words for me can do nothing," he said.

He said Aleppo was his home and he was unsure if he could ever go back.

"Whatever said, whatever seen by cameras will not show 1 per cent of what we felt, of the horror that we lived inside Aleppo," he said.

"Nothing can show the suffering we lived inside Aleppo."

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, syrian-arab-republic, russian-federation