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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Tue Dec 1, 2015, 03:16 PM Dec 2015

MSF hospital in Syria hit by 'double-tap' barrel bombing

Source: Guardian UK

A hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières in Homs has been partially destroyed in a “double-tap” barrel bombing, a signature tactic of the Syrian air force.

The strikes on the hospital in Zafarana, a besieged town in northern Homs, killed seven people including a young girl, MSF said in a statement, and prompted the movement to nearby field hospitals of many wounded, some of whom died on the way.

Saturday’s strikes were the latest in an apparent pattern of escalating attacks on medical facilities and doctors in the Syrian civil war, according to human rights organizations.

MSF, which operates and supports a number of health centres and field hospitals in Syria, said the attack bore the hallmark of a double-tap strike, whereby the first bombing is followed by a second one after paramedics have arrived to help the victims. “This double-tap tactic shows a level of calculated destruction that can scarcely be imagined,” said MSF’s director of operations, Brice de le Vingne.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/01/syria-msf-hospital-homs-barrel-bombing

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bvar22

(39,909 posts)
3. The "Double Tap"...
Tue Dec 1, 2015, 04:36 PM
Dec 2015

a favorite of the US Military used widely in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.
I believe it was the USA that "invented" the Double Tap to kill first responders and medical aid.

" NYU student Josh Begley is tweeting every reported U.S. drone strike since 2002, and the feed highlights a disturbing tactic employed by the U.S. that is widely considered a war crime.

Known as the "double tap," the tactic involves bombing a target multiple times in relatively quick succession, meaning that the second strike often hits first responders.

A strike against rescuers, a notorious terrorist tactic, is horrifically exposed in "Collateral Murder," a war crime video that Private Bradley Manning allegedly sent to Wikileaks, for which he was arrested and tortured in prison.

Glenn Greenwald wrote a Salon article, U.S. again bombs mourners: The Obama policy of attacking rescuers and grieving rituals continues this weekend in Pakistan in June of this year.

The MSM hardly covers drone war crimes, a subject that is equally below the radar on DailyKos and other progressive websites.

Dick Polman wrote this thought provoking op-ed, The silence from liberals on the drone war.

"I’m amazed that so few Americans — most notably, so few liberals — have protested his secretive remote-control assassination program. Drones have killed 3,000 people in Yemen and Pakistan, including collateral-damage civilians, but the actual numbers are secret. So is the process. We don’t know anything about the rules of engagement, how people wind up on Obama’s hit list, who reviews the evidence, and what criteria are applied to that evidence."


 

think

(11,641 posts)
11. "What are war crimes?"
Tue Dec 1, 2015, 06:44 PM
Dec 2015
What are war crimes?

War crimes” include grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict and in conflicts "not of an international character" listed in the Rome Statute, when they are committed as part of a plan or policy or on a large scale. These prohibited acts include:

* murder;

* mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

* taking of hostages;

* intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population;

* intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historical monuments or hospitals;

* pillaging;

* rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy or any other form of sexual violence;
conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities.

Source:
https://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/about%20the%20court/frequently%20asked%20questions/Pages/13.aspx


So yes, If this was an intentional attack on the hospital it would appear to fit the description as to what a war crime is under international law.

Response to n2doc (Original post)

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
9. You might want to look into cluster munitions
Tue Dec 1, 2015, 06:28 PM
Dec 2015

Many are made so that half of the clusters go off immediately, the other half are delayed (so you can kill people coming in to help). The US military is quite fond of them. That is, of course, until someone starts using the same tactic on them.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
8. Horrible tactic (regardless of the guilty party) and terrible to direct it at a hospital.
Tue Dec 1, 2015, 05:49 PM
Dec 2015

If it is the double-tap is "a signature tactic of the Syrian air force" that tells us something about the nature of the regime.

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