On Tuesday, an international watchdog accused Syrian opposition of being responsible for killings, abductions, and torture in Aleppo and surrounding areas.


MOSCOW (Sputnik) — An international rights group accused Syrian opposition on Tuesday of being responsible for killings, abductions and torture in the northern Syrian regions of Aleppo, Idlib and surrounding areas, and called for an end of these practices.


"Armed groups opposing the Syrian government have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, torture and summary killings," Amnesty International said in a report titled "Torture was my punishment’: Abductions, torture and summary killings under armed group rule in Aleppo and Idleb, Syria."


The report is said to be painting a picture of what life is like in the regions controlled by Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the governments of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States despite the existing evidence that those groups violate international humanitarian law.
"Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticize the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed," the watchdog's director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, Philip Luther, was quoted as saying by Amnesty.


He called on the countries comprising the Syria Support Group, including those implicated in supporting the violent opposition, to put pressure on those armed groups to stop the abuse, and cut the supply of arms to opposition fighters.

Numerous opposition groups in Syria have been fighting against the government forces of President Bashar Assad since 2011. The situation in the country is worsened by the activity of extremist groups, including the notorious Islamic State, outlawed in many countries around the world, including in Russia and the United States.

By Sputnik