![Crisis in Syria spills over into Lebanon, violence continues between rebels and Syrian government forces [GRAPHIC CONTENT]](https://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/themes/phototouch/themify/img.php?src=https://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/REU-SYRIA-CRISIS-25.jpg&w=670&h=274)
Crisis in Syria spills over into Lebanon, violence continues between rebels and Syrian government forces [GRAPHIC CONTENT]
The Syrian cities of Aleppo and Homs are under siege as government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad try to route out Syrian rebels. Meanwhile, violence has spilled over into Lebanon, one of four neighboring countries, where many refugees have fled to escape the crisis. United Nations investigators have reported that both Syrian government forces and rebels — to varying degrees — have committed war crimes including murder and torture.
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter reacts after his friend was shot by Syrian Army soldiers during clashes in Salah al-Din neighborhood in central Aleppo August 4, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his sniper rifle from a house in Aleppo August 14, 2012.(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- Smoke rises over the Salah al-Din neighbourhood in central Aleppo during clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and Syrian Army soldiers August 4, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012, during fights between rebels and Syrian troops. Syrian rebels “liberated” several districts of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, a Free Syrian Army spokesman in the country’s commercial hub said. Bulent Kilic/GettyImages)
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- Blood trickles across the road in the market area of the Tariq al-Bab district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on August 10, 2012, after a shell, fired by Syrian government forces, struck the side of a building killing around ten people and wounding at least 20 more as they queued to buy bread in the street below. (Phil Moore/GettyImages)
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- A Syrian Air Force fighter plane fires a rocket during an air strike in the village of Tel Rafat, some 37 km (23 miles) north of Aleppo, August 9, 2012. Syrian troops and rebels fought over the country’s biggest city Aleppo as President Bashar al-Assad’s key foreign backer Iran gathered ministers from like-minded states for talks on Thursday about how to end the conflict. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A member of the Free Syrian Army carries an injured civilian after shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo’s disctrict of Salah Edinne July 31, 2012. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
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- A man stands on a house destroyed during a recent Syrian Air force air strike in Azaz, some 47 km (29 miles) north of Aleppo, August 15, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A man looks at a destroyed Syrian Army tank in Azaz, some 47 km (29 miles) north of Aleppo August 3, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A man clears rubble surrounding a young girl who was killed during a recent Syrian Air force air strike in Azaz, some 47 km (29 miles) north of Aleppo, August 15, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A man carries the body of a boy after a Syrian Air force air strike in Azaz, some 47 km (29 miles) north of Aleppo, August 15, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Syrian man mourns the death of Abu Abed in the town of Marea, some 35km north of Aleppo, on August 9, 2012, after he was killed in fighting in the Salaheddin district of Aleppo during fighting between rebel forces and Syrian government troops. The rebel Free Syrian Army withdrew its fighters from the Salaheddin district of the embattled northern city of Aleppo as regime forces advanced, a rebel commander said. (Phil Moore/GettyImages)
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- A man walks with his child at the Qusour area after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad forces shelled the neighbourhood in the central of Homs city August 5, 2012. (Yazan Homsy/Reuters)
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- A general view shows a street after clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, in Salah Edinne district, in the centre of Aleppo August 9, 2012. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during clashes with Syrian Army in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo August 7, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter walks through a hole in a wall of a house during heavy fighting in Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo August 11, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter screams in pain after he was injured in a leg by shrapnel from a shell fired from a Syrian Army tank in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo August 7, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- Free Syrian Army fighters take cover as a Syrian Army tank shell hits a building across a street during heavy fighting walks in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo August 11, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- Residents stand among the ruins of buildings destroyed in what activists said was an air strike by the Syrian Air Force at al-Khalidiah neighborhood in Homs August 11, 2012. (Shaam News Network/Reuters)
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- A man waves as he walks past an unexploded mortar embedded along a street after shelling by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad in the centre of Anadan, 15 km (9.3 miles) northwest of Aleppo, August 8, 2012. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
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- A fighter from the Syrian opposition aims fire during clashes with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, in the center of Syria’s restive northern city of Aleppo on July 25, 2012. The Syrian army and rebels on July 25, sent reinforcements to Aleppo to join the intensifying battle for the country’s second city, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the world “to stop the slaughter.” (Bulent Kilic/GettyImages)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter fires a RPG as a Syrian Army tank shell hits a building across a street during heavy fighting in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo August 11, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A wounded Free Syrian Army commander walks through rubble in the Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo August 11, 2012.(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an AK-47 rifle in Aleppo August 14, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A general view of damaged buildings in Juret al-Shayah in Homs August 12, 2012. (Shaam News Network/Reuters)
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- A man and woman cry over the body of their son in Aleppo August 12, 2012. The son was shot by a sniper in the Salaheddine district of Aleppo where fighting has raged for almost two weeks. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter helps a woman to run across a street during clashes in Aleppo August 12, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army sniper looks through the sight on his rifle inside a house in Aleppo August 13, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter drags a dead man shot in Salaheddine neighborhood in Aleppo out of the line of sniper fire August 13, 2012. Free Syrian Army fighters said the man was shot dead by Syrian Army snipers. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his sniper rifle Aleppo August 14, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter reacts after hearing news that his commander had been killed by tank shell in Aleppo August 14, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A man walks through a room at Dar Al Shifa Hospital, damaged in yesterday’s Syrian Air force air strike, in the Sha’aar neighbourhood of Aleppo August 15, 2012. The patients that were in the hospital when the air strike happened have now all been evacuated. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an AK-47 rifle in Aleppo August 15, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- Residents pray over the bodies of Syrians who they say are opposition activists killed by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, during a mass funeral along a street in Jdeidet Artouz near Damascus August 1, 2012. (Hussam Chamy/Reuters)
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- A member of the Syrian opposition walks past a body lying in the street during fighting against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the disputed neighbourhood of Salaheddin in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on August 13, 2012. Government forces shelled two flashpoint districts of Aleppo and a hospital in the east, which was also hit two days ago, and was largely empty of patients and medical staff, an AFP journalist said. (Vedat Xhymshiti/GettyImages)
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- A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an AK-47 rifle in Aleppo August 14, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
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- A Syrian rebel covered in plaster dust walks after emerging from a building hit by an army tank shell in the Salaheddin district of the northern city of Aleppo on August 13, 2012. Syrian rebels claimed they downed a fighter jet in what would be a major coup for the opposition but the regime seized the upper hand in Aleppo as it advanced into a new rebel-held district. (Phil Moore/GettyImages)
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- Two men on a motorcycle ride through a debris-filled street in northwestern Aleppo on August 12, 2012, as Syrian government forces pressed their assault on rebels in the country’s northern commercial capital, with both sides reporting atrocities. (Phil Moore/GettyImages)
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- Girls queue to buy bread at the only bakery serving the outskirts of Idlib province August 1, 2012. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
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- A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burning during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in the city center of Selehattin, near Aleppo. Syrian rebels “liberated” several districts of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, a Free Syrian Army spokesman in the country’s commercial hub said. (Bulent Kilic/GettyImages)
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Syrian government forces, rebels committing war crimes: U.N.
Stephanie Nebehay
Reuters
1:34 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2012
GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian government forces and allied militia have committed war crimes including murder and torture in what appears to be state-directed policy, United Nations investigators said on Wednesday.
Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have also committed war crimes but these “did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale” of those carried out by the army and security forces, the investigators said.
The report called for the U.N. Security Council to take “appropriate action” given the gravity of documented violations by all sides.
The Security Council can refer a case to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a United Nations tribunal, but Russia and China – which have veto power – have been loathe to condemn Syria.
“We have identified both parties as guilty of war crimes and of course a greater number and of bigger variety from the government side,” Karen AbuZayd, a senior U.S. investigator and former head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“What happened on the government side appears to be a policy of the state. It is not just widespread but similar large-scale complex operations, how they are carried out, the way the military and security work together,” she said.
The independent investigators, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, conducted more than 1,000 interviews, mainly with Syrian refugees or defectors who have fled to neighboring countries, over the past year to produce their latest 102-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
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