Syrian Foreign Ministry condemns US Coalition’s use of white phosphorous

Syria’s foreign ministry has resolutely condemned the use of white phosphorous bombs by the air force of the US-led coalition, SANA news agency said on Sunday.

In its letter to the United Nations Secretary General, the ministry stressed that the coalition’s airstrike caused numerous civilian casualties in the city of Hajin in the Deir ez-Zor governorate, SANA said.

“The use of internationally prohibited weapons against the Syrian people has become a systematic and intentional behavior of this coalition in a blatant violation of the rules of international law, international humanitarian law and human rights,” the ministry said, adding that this crime is yet another one “in a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Syrian people.”

Syria calls on the UN Security Council “to conduct an international investigation into these crimes and to condemn them immediately, to stop their recurrence, to end the aggressive presence of US and other foreign forces illegally present on the Syrian territory,” the ministry stressed.