MI6 and British police are investigating alleged attacks on civilians by Russian war planes in Syria – with a view to prosecuting President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal

MI6 and British police are investigating alleged attacks on civilians by Russian war planes in Syria – with a view to prosecuting President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Scotland Yard detectives have flown to Lebanon to monitor air strikes in neighbouring Syria – amid claims that Russian bombers have caused hundreds of casualties by targeting hospitals and schools.

Medical charities and human rights groups have already condemned the bombing of civilians in areas controlled by Syrian rebels who oppose the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Putin’s ally.

Now the MoS can reveal that intelligence services are compiling a secret dossier of specific assaults, which could lead to the Russian President facing allegations of crimes against humanity at an international tribunal.

The revelation comes after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned Moscow last month that strikes on hospitals ‘could amount to war crimes’. Last night, Foreign Office sources confirmed that the UK is ‘closely monitoring the situation’ in Syria.

The MoS understands that British investigators, including detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service’s war crimes unit, are at the British Embassy in Beirut.

According to Amnesty International, Russia is targeting hospitals in areas held by rebel groups in an attempt to terrorise local people into supporting President Assad.

In the northern city of Aleppo, where the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) is popular, eight hospitals are understood to have been struck by missiles fired by military aircraft since September 30 last year – when Russian forces joined the conflict.

Russian and Syrian aircraft are also alleged to have targeted hospitals in other areas of the country.

On February 15, 25 people were killed when two medical buildings were attacked in the western city of Maarat Al-Numan. After the first strike, doctors moved the wounded to another hospital – which was then hit by three missiles in an hour.

Scotland Yard detectives have flown to Lebanon to monitor air strikes in neighbouring Syria – amid claims that Russian bombers (pictured in Syria) have caused hundreds of casualties by targeting hospitals and schools

All medical facilities in war zones are protected under international law. Russia has denied that its jets target hospitals, insisting its aircraft only strike ‘terrorist targets’. The Russian Embassy in London was unavailable for comment last night.

But former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen dismissed Russia’s excuses. He said: ‘Claims that Russia is only going after groups such as Islamic State are plainly false. It is time to expose such hypocrisy and Britain should lead this effort.’

An influential committee in the US Congress has also voted in favour of setting up a war crimes tribunal for Syria.

US diplomats are now expected to seek support for the move at the United Nations. Evidence compiled by Britain would be put before such a tribunal. Scotland Yard declined to comment.

Surgeon in Syria: They target our hospitals... and hit us every time we move

Special report by Mark Nicol

A surgeon working in northern Syria has told The Mail on Sunday his patients and colleagues are being deliberately targeted by Russian air strikes, even after the internationally brokered ceasefire.

In the most horrific attack, a precision-guided Russian bomb reduced his hospital to rubble in a blast which killed five of his patients and three of his medical colleagues.

Dr Abdul Aziz, 50, only survived the attack on Christmas Day last year because he was working in the basement when Russian jets targeted the hospital in Azaz, northern Syria, causing carnage.

Dr Abdul Aziz (pictured flanked by colleagues), a surgeon working in Syria, said his patients and colleagues are being deliberately targeted by Russian air strikes, even after the internationally brokered ceasefire

MI6 and British police are investigating alleged attacks on civilians by Russian war planes in Syria. Flames are pictured rising after the Russian army carried out airstrikes on two hospitals in Aleppo, Syria, last December

In his first interview since the attack, Dr Aziz said: ‘It was horrific, terrifying. People were screaming and crying, the hospital was ablaze and the place filled with dense smoke and nobody could see.

'One by one we found out who had died. A nurse had been killed, an ambulance driver, a hospital porter and five patients who were in post-surgery had lost their lives.

‘We then huddled underground praying the aircraft would go away. It was cold, dark and everyone was choking on the dust. When it was over I burst into tears. I was alive but I felt no relief because more colleagues and patients had died.’

People were pictured salvaging medical supplies found under the rubble of a destroyed hospital hit by missiles in Idlib province, Syria, on February 16

Dr Aziz said that since Russia entered the conflict on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s side, hospital staff in Aleppo had been forced to take increasingly desperate measures to protect themselves from attacks.

These include removing all insignia from ambulances, removing any signs which indicate the location of medical facilities, and living and working underground.

He said: ‘All the hospitals I work at have been targeted by air strikes.

'I am convinced it is the Russians because when it was the Syrian regime firing at us we could see the planes and that gave people some time to take cover, but the Russian jets remain at altitude and we don’t see or hear anything until it is too late.

'The international community should be ashamed; they have let President Putin do this for months.’

On the ceasefire which began last weekend, Dr Aziz said: ‘A hospital in Aleppo was targeted by air strikes at 11.30 local time on the Friday night, just half an hour before the ceasefire came into effect.

‘There were no air strikes in Aleppo on the Saturday but by Sunday it was like normal again, with bombs being dropped every day. For the local people there has been almost no respite. And in the meantime Islamic State fighters are getting closer to Aleppo, to within ten miles to the east of the city. I have seen no evidence of military action by the Syrian regime or Russia against IS, certainly there is collusion.’

Dr Aziz, who previously worked at Manchester’s Royal Infirmary hospital in 2005, is one of just seven surgeons left in Aleppo, a province in northern Syria.

The medic, who is married with a family of his own, said that the vital need to treat wounded children vastly outweighed fears for his own safety.

He said: ‘It is a living nightmare, one child after another, with hands missing, legs missing and devastated parents crying at the sheer hopelessness of the situation.

‘I cling to fragments of hope, like the boy whose legs I had to remove above the knee.

Horror: A ruined ambulance is seen after airstrikes on the Qabtan al Jabal town of Aleppo, Syria, in February

‘A year after I operated on him he sent me a photograph of himself smiling as he was using his artificial limbs. He said that I should not worry about him any more. That was a very emotional moment.’

Last night, British surgeon David Nott OBE, who operated alongside Dr Aziz in Aleppo last year, paid tribute to him saying: ‘He and I are good friends. Dr Aziz has saved so many lives.