Tory MP Compares Russia's Bombardment Of Syria To Nazis

Mitchell's comments come ahead of a three-hour debate to be held in Parliament today about the humanitarian crisis in Syria, especially Aleppo.Reuters

Russia's targeting of civilians in Syria is similar to atrocities committed by the Nazis, a senior Tory MP has said.

Andrew Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield and the former secretary of state for international development, on Monday condemned last month's attack on a UN relief convoy near Aleppo.

Mitchell branded it a war crime committed by Russian forces.

Some 20 people were killed in the attack on the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy and the US blamed two Russian war planes which it said were in the skies above the area at the time of the incident.

Moscow rejects the accusations saying it only targets militants and accuses the West of being responsible for the crisis in Syria.

"When it comes to incendiary weapons and munitions such as bunker buster bombs and cluster bombs, the UN makes it clear that the systematic use of such indiscriminate weapons in densely populated areas amounts to a war crime," Mitchell told parliament late on Monday.

"We are witnessing events that match the behaviour of the Nazi regime in Guernica in Spain," he said referring to the destruction of the Spanish town in 1937 by German aircraft from Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe. The bombing of the historic city became the subject of a famous painting by artist Pablo Picasso.

"They [Russia] are destroying the United Nations and its ability to act, in the same way the Germans and the Italians destroyed the League of Nations in the 1930s."

Mitchell said Russia had "shredded" international law by supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mitchell's comments come ahead of a three-hour debate to be held in Parliament today about the humanitarian crisis in Syria, especially Aleppo.

The UN estimates that 275,000 people are currently trapped in the east of the city, and hundreds have died since the beginning of an offensive last month.

Even since the collapse of a US-Russia brokered ceasefire three weeks ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 290 people have been killed including 57 children.

Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the bombardment of Aleppo was "demonic" and shows "absolute contempt for the human spirit".

In an interview with ITV News, Welby said: "What is being done is evil, it is demonic, it is the absolute contempt for the human spirit, for the dignity of the human being. It is the brushing aside of the poor and the weak and the fragile, in a way that is as bad as anything we've seen in the last century."

Additional reporting by Reuters.