Russian actions in Aleppo 'barbarism,' not counter-terrorism, says U.S. ambassador at UN

Russia's actions in Syria amount to "barbarism," not counter-terrorism as Moscow insists, Samantha Powers, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Sunday.

Airstrikes carried out by the Assad regime and the Russians recently "may indeed be war crimes," she told a meeting of the UN Security Council.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre went further, saying the use of "sophisticated incendiary devices," destroying buildings in civilian neighbourhoods of Aleppo with a single strike, "constitutes a war crime."

"Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes," British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.

All three said Russia will continue to deflect criticism with its argument that it is targeting militant groups. Delattre said Russia is using "the pretext of an anti-terrorist fight" as it bombs schools and refugee camps.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin blamed what is happening now on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying "Washington and other Western capitals interfered" in the country and "hundreds of armed groups" then became established in Syria.

• Syria believes it's on the way to military victory
• Nearly 2 million people without water after latest airstrike in Aleppo

After a ceasefire collapsed in Syria last week, Russian and Syrian warplanes have been hammering Syria's largest city, Aleppo. 

Dozens of civilians have been reported killed in eastern Aleppo in recent days in renewed government airstrikes. 

At least 23 civilians were killed in the offensive on Sunday, Syrian activists said as the council convened its emergency meeting.

At the start of the meeting, the UN's top envoy to Syria accused the government of unleashing "unprecedented military violence" against civilians in Aleppo.
 
Staffan de Mistura said Syria's declaration of a military offensive to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo has led to one of the worst weeks of the 5½-year war with dozens of airstrikes against residential areas and buildings.

He, too, said targeting civilians with weapons that included incendiary devices may amount to war crimes.

Medical workers and local officials reported airstrikes on neighbourhoods throughout Aleppo's rebel-held eastern districts as the announced offensive entered its fourth day.

On Saturday, a UNICEF representative in Syria, Hanaa Singer, said attacks damaged the Bab al-Nairab station, which supplies water to some 250,000 people in the rebel-held east.

Singer said that in retaliation, the Suleiman al-Halabi pumping station, also located in the rebel-held east, was switched off —  cutting water to 1.5 million people in government-held western parts of the city.

"Depriving children of water puts them at risk of catastrophic outbreaks of water-borne diseases," Singer warned in her statement, released late Friday.

"Water should never be used as a weapon of war," Powers told the Security Council, "and the people of Aleppo should not be forced to drink water that makes them sick."