U.S. names Syrian generals who will face trial for attacks on civilian

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States on Monday, November 21 named a dozen Syrian generals and officers accused of leading attacks on civilian targets and running torture prisons, warning they will one day face justice, AFP reports.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power read out the names at a tense Security Council meeting on Syria, where government forces backed by Russia pressed on with an offensive as the humanitarian crisis reached alarming levels.

Nearly one million people are now living under siege, UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien said, a dramatic increase from 486,700 Syrians cut off by besiegement six months ago.

Power said many of the military commanders were involved in killing civilians with assaults on schools, hospitals and homes since the outbreak of the war in 2011.

"Today's atrocities are well-documented and the civilized world's memories are long," she said.

The ambassador listed a number of facilities where cases of torture have been documented and warned officers and prison officials that the world was watching them.

Among those named were five major generals -- Adib Salameh, Jawdat Salbi Mawas, Tahir Hamid Khalil, Jamil Hassan and Rafiq Shihadeh -- along with five brigadier generals and two colonels.

"The United States will not let those who have commanded units involved in these actions hide anonymously behind the facade of the Assad regime," she said.

The council met as Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held parts of northern Syria while food rations were running out in east Aleppo, which has been under siege since July.