Assad is exterminating his own people, says UN

A young girl injured in a reported barrel-bomb attack by government forces
A young girl injured in a reported barrel-bomb attack by government forces
BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Syrian regime is responsible for a policy of “extermination” against its own people, according to a United Nations investigation.

The findings help to prepare the ground for sanctions and potential war crimes charges against senior regime figures.

The UN Human Rights Council said that the abuse, torture and killings of prisoners in state detention facilities were systematic and conducted on an industrial scale. It concluded that the abuse was sanctioned at the highest level.

“Prison officials, their superiors throughout the hierarchy, high-ranking officials in military hospitals and the military police corps, as well as government, were aware that deaths on a massive scale were occurring,” the investigation’s chairman, Paul Pinheiro, said.

“We concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct described amounts