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Summary Brahimi says the crisis is dangerous and getting worse.
UN officials have denounced gross human rights violations by both sides in Syria, as fighting rages in the second city Aleppo with the army claiming to have secured much of a strategic district.Midan is under the control of the army, a military official told AFP Monday, a claim backed up by a correspondent on the ground.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four rebels were killed in fighting across the northern city, which has been the scene of battles since July 20.In Geneva, the head of a UN commission investigating rights abuses in Syria said they had soared dramatically in recent weeks and that the UN Security Council should take appropriate action against war criminals.Gross violations of human rights have grown in number, in pace and in scale, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said, adding that President Bashar al-Assads regime -- and the rebels, to a lesser extent -- had committed war crimes.In a dramatic escalation, indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the form of air strikes and artillery shelling levelled against residential neighbourhoods are occurring daily, he said.The indiscriminate use of weapons, he added, combined with a failure to protect civilians, reflected a disturbing disregard for established rules of armed conflict.Robert Serry, UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, meanwhile told the Security Council that indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas by government forces with heavy weapons, tanks and air assets has increased.For its part, Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.This is one measure that all Security Council members, including Russia, should find it easy to agree on if they are truly concerned about the violations committed in Syria, the New York-based groups Nadim Houry said.Extrajudicial or summary executions of detainees in the context of an armed conflict are war crimes, and may constitute crimes against humanity if they are widespread and systematic, he added, in a statement.In Cairo the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and Iran met to discuss developments in Syria on the political and humanitarian fronts, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who also attended the Cairo talks, was set to visit the Altinozu refugee camp in Turkeys Hatay province near the Syrian border, a Turkish official said.Brahimi said Saturday that the crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world.Turkey, which threw support behind Brahimis mission, is already home to some 80,000 registered refugees in several camps in the southeast region bordering Syria, but has said it can handle no more than 100,000 refugees.
