U.N. investigators on March 18 said they had expanded their list of suspected war criminals from both sides in Syria’s civil war and the evidence was solid enough to prepare any indictment. The U.N. inquiry has identified individuals, military units and security agencies as well as insurgent groups suspected of committing abuses such as torture and bombing civilian areas, it said in its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Some 20 investigators have carried out 2,700 interviews with victims, witnesses and defectors in the region and by Skype in Syria, but have never been allowed to enter the country now in its fourth year of an increasingly sectarian conflict.
The number of Syrian refugees taking shelter in camps in Turkey has exceeded 220,000, according to Turkey’s emergency management agency. Turkey has allocated to refugees 16 tent cities along with a temporary reception centre and six container cities in 10 of its provinces, most of which are located in areas along Syria-Turkey border, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) was reported as saying. The United States on March 18 suspended operations of the Syrian Embassy in Washington and its consulates and told diplomats and staff who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents to leave the country.