GENEVA -- A U.N. panel said Wednesday that the evacuation of eastern Aleppo, after months of siege and aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian forces, was one of many war crimes committed by those fighting for control of the city.
The findings came during open-ended peace talks mediated by a U.N. envoy. The peace talks have been slow going as the opposition demands a political transition in which Syrian President Bashar Assad cedes power -- something the government has rejected.
But in a sign of moderate progress, after almost a week of meetings, the sides appeared to have signed off on the agenda proposed by U.N. Syrian envoy Staffan de Mistura: separate "baskets" of topics covering the issues of governance, elections and constitutions.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters in Geneva that "the parties have agreed to ... discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks." After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he said.
[TIMELINE: Key events in Aleppo since the start of Syria’s uprising ]
De Mistura held back-to-back meetings with the Damascus government delegation and the main Syrian opposition Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria unveiled a report looking at violations by all parties in last year's battle for Aleppo, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, and the use of chemical agents and cluster munitions. A bombing campaign by the Russia and Syrian air force, coupled with the denial of humanitarian aid, drove rebels in the city to finally surrender.
"The scale of what happened in Aleppo is unprecedented in the Syrian conflict," said the commission's chairman, Paulo Pinheiro.
Aleppo was the economic capital of Syria before becoming a major battleground after rebels swept in during the summer of 2012. For Assad, the capture of eastern Aleppo in December was a key victory and shifted the military balance in his favor.
The agreement to evacuate rebel-held eastern Aleppo gave civilians no option to remain at the end of the protracted campaign, in which daily aerial bombings killed hundreds of people and left all the hospitals in the area out of service.
The commission said the conditions of the agreement amounted to "the war crime of forced displacement."
The report looked at violations committed between July 21, when the siege of rebel-held part of Aleppo started, and Dec. 22, when Syrian troops and allied forces assumed full control of the city.
It consulted the testimony of 291 eyewitnesses, satellite imagery and an array of material, including medical reports, forensic evidence and information provided by U.N. member states.
"For months, the Syrian and Russian air forces relentlessly bombarded eastern Aleppo city as part of a strategy to force surrender," Pinheiro said. "The deliberate targeting of civilians has resulted in the immense loss of human life, including hundreds of children."
The commission said it was often difficult to know whether specific strikes were carried out by Russia or the Syrian government. But it said it had determined that Syrian warplanes targeted hospitals on at least two occasions, and deliberately attacked a humanitarian aid convoy Sept. 19. It also found evidence that the Syrian government had used prohibited cluster munitions.
Both sides carried out indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, it said, adding that rebels had launched imprecise mortar attacks on government-held neighborhoods. As defeat was near, some rebels shot civilians to prevent them from leaving and used them as human shields, while government forces forcibly conscripted 200 men.
Pinheiro said the commission's investigators are ready to share their list of suspects with a recently established U.N. panel responsible for building cases toward the prosecution of those liable for war crimes or crimes against humanity in Syria.
The report also said Syria's air force used chemical weapons -- chlorine gas -- against residential areas. Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution outlining punitive measures against individuals responsible.
The peace talks seek to capitalize on a cease-fire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey after the evacuation of eastern Aleppo, but fighting is still underway in different parts of the country.
In the northern city of al-Bab, which U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said has been fully liberated by Turkish forces, a Russian airstrike on Wednesday hit U.S.-backed Syrian Arab forces who are part of the fight against the Islamic State.
Russia denied responsibility, saying in a written statement that it had adhered to U.S. guidance on avoiding friendly forces in that area.
Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, said an unspecified number of American military advisers were a few miles away from the bombed site, out of immediate danger but close enough to see their Syrian partners get hit. He declined to say how many of the U.S.-backed Syrian fighters were killed or wounded.
Townsend said the Americans sent word that quickly reached Russian officials, who acknowledged the problem and stopped the bombing. Townsend, who spoke to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters in Baghdad, said he believes that the Russians thought they were striking Islamic State positions in the village. But Islamic State fighters had withdrawn before the bombing, and members of what the Americans call the Syrian Arab Coalition had moved in, he said.
In Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement contradicting Townsend's version of the events. It said that in communications before the airstrike, a U.S. officer had expressed concern about the possibility of U.S.-backed Syrian fighters being struck inadvertently.
"The Russian military command took that information into account. Russian or Syrian aircraft haven't dealt a single strike on the areas designated by the U.S.," the statement says.
Information for this article was contributed by Philip Issa, Hashem Osseiran, Danica Kirka, Vladimir Isachenkov, Frank Jordans and Robert Burns of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/02/2017