Qatar yesterday condemned  Thursday’s air raids that targeted Syrian refugees in Kamouna camp in Idlib province, in northern Syria.
The raid led to the murder and injuries of a number of people.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the raids as criminal and contradictory to all human principles. The statement added that the airstrikes aimed to terrorise the innocent.
The statement also added that the strike undermined peace efforts in Syria.
The Ministry called for an investigation to identify the aggressors in what it said was a war crime and a crime against humanity.
A top UN official said initial reports suggested a government plane was responsible for the “murderous attacks” on the refugee camp
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said the attacks were almost certainly a deliberate war crime. France called them a “revolting and unacceptable act that could amount to a war crime or crime against humanity”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said women and children were among those killed in the attack on the camp near the town of Sarmada, which sheltered people fleeing the five-year civil war. The monitoring group said the death toll could rise further because many people were seriously wounded.
UN rights chief Zeid said in a statement: “Given these tent settlements have been in these locations for several weeks, and can be clearly viewed from the air, it is extremely unlikely that these murderous attacks were an accident.”
He said his organisation and others would “leave no stone unturned in their efforts to research and record evidence of what appears to be a particularly despicable and calculated crime against an extremely vulnerable group of people.”
Initial reports suggested the attacks were carried out by Syrian government aircraft, but this remained to be verified, he added. He urged governments on the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court so that there would be “a clear path to punishment for those who commit crimes like these”.
Footage shared on social media showed rescue workers putting out fires which still burned among charred tent frames, pitched in a muddy field. White smoke billowed from smouldering ashes, and a burned and bloodied torso could be seen.
Sarmada lies about 30km west of Aleppo, where a cessation of hostilities brokered by Russia and the US had brought a measure of relief on Thursday.
Zeid said most of the people in the camps had been forced to flee their homes in Aleppo in February because of sustained aerial attacks there.
Meanwhile, HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, dealing with bilateral relations as well as the latest regional and international developments, particularly the situation in Syria.
The verbal  message was conveyed by HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani,  during a meeting  with President Putin in the Black Sea resort  of Sochi yesterday.
“We came here today to discuss possible ways to save the political process, to save the civilian population,” HE Sheikh Mohamed told journalists after the meeting with Putin.
“We all need to unite efforts to bring an end to the crisis and punish the guilty,” he said in comments translated into Russian.