Vladimir Putin is slaughtering innocent civilians in Syria on purpose, claims Boris Johnson
Foreign Secretary says the Government has evidence Russia is carrying out 'double tap' bombing raids
BORIS Johnson has accused Russia of targeting civilian aid workers in Syria on purpose with “double tap” bombing raids to catch them out in the open.
The Foreign Secretary said the government now has evidence that the Kremlin's own jets are behind the sick tactic - which he dubbed “unquestionably a war crime”.
The charge that President Putin and his generals are cynically slaughtering innocent civilians on purpose is the strongest yet by any Western politician over its role in the bloody five year-long civil war.
It was made in an interview with The Sun ahead of Tory conference on Sunday - Mr Johnson's first with a newspaper since being made Foreign Secretary.
Revealing the atrocity, Mr Johnson said: “One thing I think is certainly a war crime is the double tap procedure that they do.
“They drop one bomb and then they wait for the aid workers to come out, civilian people pulling the injured from the rubble, and then five minutes later they drop another bomb.
“We have evidence. We have good ground to believe that the Russians themselves have been doing that.
“We are trying to document that fully because that is in my view unquestionably a war crime.”
In images that are shocking the world, the besieged rebel-held corner of the Syrian city of Aleppo is now taking its worst aerial bombardment of the war.
After the collapse of a fleeting ceasefire last week, Russian and Assad regime jets are trying to pound rebels into submission there ahead of a major ground offensive to crush the city once and for all.
Multiple air strikes this week alone have put the two largest hospitals in Aleppo out of service and killed more than 200 people.
The Free Syrian rescue force - known as the White Helmets - have lost 137 of their number to air strikes so far, many of them from "double tap" bombs.
Boris also issued a thinly veiled attack on President Obama and David Cameron for being at fault for Russia’s involvement in the war.
The Foreign Secretary branded the West’s decision not to intervene against President Assad in 2013 as “a mistake”, as it "left the space open for the Russians”.
He added: “I think the failure to foresee that was a real error”.
And he revealed Britain and the US are looking at “a range of options” to turn up the pressure on Russia to halt its spiralling role in Syria’s terrible violence.
The Sun understands that includes all UK officials boycotting the 2018 World Cup, which Russia is hosting.
Boris explained: “The single most potent weapon we have is shame.
“We are looking at a range of options. There is no point in just mouthing empty rhetoric about these things - you somehow have to make it tell.
“The world’s attitude towards Russia has been hardening and I think people now believe that Russia is in danger of becoming a pariah nation.
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"If they continue like this they will forfeit any sympathy and any admiration in the world at all, and I think they do care about that.
“In the end, if Putin’s strategy is the greatness and glory of Russia then he risks seeing that turned to ashes as people view his actions with contempt.”
While sharing sympathy with Turkey for its call for NATO-policed no fly zones in Syria, Boris ruled out any deepening of Britain’s military involvement in the war for now.
He explained: “I'm with them. But the reality at the moment is there is very little appetite in any Western capital for committing our troops, risking our lives, in a sustained way in this theatre of war.
"We have to accept that.”
Boris’s powerful outburst comes as he carves out an outspoken new role for himself in a brief more traditionally known for smoothness and diplomacy.
The 52-year-old spoke to The Sun in his palatial room in the Foreign Office overlooking St James’s Park.
More than twice the size of the PM’s own study in No10, it is known as the grandest office in Whitehall.
Showing his independent streak, Boris kept France’s foreign minister waiting outside it for 12 minutes to finish his interview with The Sun.
Jean-Marc Ayrault had arrived early from Paris for talks with him on Thursday.
Dismissing flustered civil servants, Boris said: “If they’re early, they’re early. They can’t expect to come straight in”.
Despite leading the successful Leave campaign to deliver a Brexit vote in the EU referendum, the charismatic former London mayor also insisted hasn't repeated one of his predecessor’s most famous quotes from his large windows.
On the eve of World War One, Sir Edward Grey looked out on St James’s Park at night to warn how “the lamps are going out all over Europe”.
But Boris countered with a reference to the Hinkley Point power station deal: “No, no. The lights are staying on all over Britain - thanks to our wise decision to invest in nuclear power with the help of our French friends”.
Two and a half months into it now, Mr Johnson dubbed his new job – a surprise appointment by Theresa May – as “a huge honour, a huge privilege, a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity”.
He added: “Every day I have been in the job has confirmed in me what I always suspected - that Britain is admired and respected around the world by ordinary people in a way that I don’t think we often acknowledge.
“It is quite incredible to see what we do across the globe.
"We are not just a global economy we are a global power in a way that people don’t I think often recognise.
"This should give us great confidence as we leave the EU."
