\n President Bashar al-Assad's regime, against which France has launched an inquiry for alleged crimes against humanity, has been accused of a string of rights violations since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Repression of peaceful demonstrations -\n<\/p>\n
\n - March 6, 2011: In the southern city of Daraa, later to be known as the cradle of Syria's popular uprising, around 15 adolescents are arrested and tortured for having daubed anti-regime graffiti at the height of the Arab Spring, signalling the start of the revolt.\n<\/p>\n
\n - April 22: Around 100 die after the security forces crack down with live ammunition on massive demonstrations in several cities, including the capital Damascus.\n<\/p>\n
\n - July 31: During an intervention in rebel cities, the army and security forces kill 139 people, including 100 in the central city of Hama, the scene of massive demonstrations against the regime.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Bloody massacres -\n<\/p>\n
\n - February 4, 2012: More than 230 civilians are killed in a single night of army bombardment of the central city of Homs, the opposition says. Regime denied the charge.\n<\/p>\n
\n - May 25: At least 108 are killed in the central city of Houla. A UN commission of inquiry says Assad's forces are responsible for many of the deaths.\n<\/p>\n
\n - August 20-26: A largescale military operation against the rebel stronghold of Daraya near Damascus: more than 500 bodies are discovered.\n<\/p>\n
\n - September 20: Dozens are killed when the air force strikes a petrol station in the northern province of Raqa.\n<\/p>\n
\n - On December 23 more than 60 civilians are killed during a raid in front of a bakery near Hama. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), attacks on queues in front of bakeries have killed dozens of civilians.\n<\/p>\n
\n - January 13, 2013: Carnage at the university of Aleppo in the north: more than 87 die, mostly students. Rebels and regime trade blame.\n<\/p>\n
\n - May 2-4: Massacres in Sunni coastal villages and neighbourhoods in the heart of Shiite Alawite territory, in Bayda and Banias, leave at least 200 dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Chemical weapons and barrel bombs -\n<\/p>\n
\n - August 21, 2013: At least 1,429 people including 426 children are killed according to US intelligence, in a chemical attack near Damascus blamed on the regime by the opposition and Western countries. Paris describes it as a \"crime against humanity\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - In April, 2015, HRW accuses the regime of having dropped on six occasions in March chemicals packed into crude explosives-filled barrels on rebel-held areas during heavy fighting for the city of Idlib. Damascus denies.\n<\/p>\n
\n - May 4, 2015: Syrian government forces are committing \"crimes against humanity\" by indiscriminately bombing Aleppo, Amnesty International charges, also criticising rebels for abuses including \"war crimes\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Amnesty is highly critical of the government's use of so-called barrel bombs, crudely constructed weapons fashioned from barrels and other vessels packed with explosives.\n<\/p>\n
\n Launched in November 2012, the dropping of barrel bombs by regime helicopters has left thousands dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Torture accusations -\n<\/p>\n
\n - March 13, 2015: The Observatory says almost 13,000 Syrians, including nearly 110 minors, have died under torture in regime prisons.\n<\/p>\n
\n It says the number does not include 20,000 people who have gone missing in the jails.\n<\/p>\n
\n - June 22: Women prisoners in government jails are used as a \"weapon of war\", the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network says in a report, documenting sexual abuse and torture of detainees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Bashar al-Assad's regime, against which France has launched an inquiry for alleged crimes against humanity, has been accused of a string of rights violations since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011. - Repression of peaceful demonstrations - - March 6, 2011: In the southern city of Daraa, later to be known as the cradle of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-2278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n