MarkRubens/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A report issued by the United Nations-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria confirmed that war crimes were committed by “all parties” in the battle for control over Aleppo last year.

The battle for the city raged from July through December and resulted in what the U.N.-sponsored report called “unparalleled suffering for Syrian men, women and children.” The report detailed the massive loss of life, caused in part by the “deliberate targeting of civilians” according to Paulo Pinheiro, the Chair of the three-member Commission.

Pro-government forces in eastern Aleppo used siege-like tactics that trapped civilians without sufficient food or medical supplies, the report says. That, added to Syrian and Russian daily air strikes claimed “hundreds of lives and [reduced] hospitals, schools and markets to rubble.”

The report also accuses Syrian forces of using chlorine bombs — prohibited under international law — in residential areas.

Also detailed in the report were an attack on a UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian convoy and “indiscriminate attacks by armed groups.”

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