Germany accuses Syria regime of ‘intentionally’ bombing hospitals

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad of intentionally targeting and bombing hospitals and medical facilities in opposition-held eastern Aleppo, as the Assad regime is again accused of using chemical weapons against the Syrian people.

Speaking to the German Bundestag yesterday, Merkel said: “There are too many indications that hospitals and medical facilities are deliberately being bombed and…that is internationally forbidden [and] has to be pursued under [international] criminal law.”

The Chancellor added that it was “very regrettable that Russia is supporting this regime” as she renewed her condemnation of the Syrian Assad regime, but insisted that she would continue to pursue political solutions “even if it seems as hopeless as it does at present.”

At a joint press conference with outgoing US President Barack Obama last week, Merkel said that Al-Assad is guilty of committing war crimes, and that his regime could never be an ally to Germany.

“When you talk to the many Syrian refugees who have fled here to Germany they will tell you their own personal story, and the…great majority of them fled from [Al-Assad], and most of them did not even flee [Daesh]. So I don’t see him as an ally.”

Assad regime dropping barrel bombs laced with chemicals

Merkel’s criticism of the Assad regime and its Russian backers comes as Syrian forces dropped barrel bombs on opposition-held areas laced with chlorine as a type of rudimentary chemical weapon.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitoring organisation, said that its network of sources had witnessed several barrel bombs being dropped that contained what they believed was chlorine gas chemicals.

This was confirmed by the Aleppo Health Directorate, who said that they had treated patients with breathing problems. Video footage of children with breathing problems were also released, with one terrified child asking if he was “going to die.”

In light of this and other historic chemical weapons attacks, France has renewed calls for sanctions against Syria.

“It’s been proved that the regime and [Daesh] have used chemical weapons, so we now need sanctions and that’s the resolution we want at the UN. The international community must stop turning a blind eye,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said yesterday.

The Syrian military launched a large chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb in 2013 that led to 1,500 civilians being killed, including 400 children. President Obama had said that the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” but failed to enforce his own restriction, leading to calls that the United States had failed in its obligation to protect civilians.

The United Nations has said that more than 400,000 Syrians have lost their lives since 2011.