UN panel identifies war criminals in Syria

A UN panel investigating human rights abuses in Syria says it has identified those responsible for crimes including hostage-taking, torture and executions and has put their names on a list of people who should eventually be held accountable for their actions.

The panel's chairman, Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, says the list of suspected criminals includes the heads of intelligence branches and detention facilities where torture occurs, military commanders who target civilians, officials overseeing airports from where barrel bomb attacks are planned and executed, and leaders of armed groups involved in attacking civilians.

Pinheiro also reported today that the panel is investigating allegations of mass graves in northern Syria where fighters with the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had "conducted mass executions of detainees.