France launches probe into Assad regime for crimes against humanity

France is investigating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime over alleged crimes against humanity, the Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

Bashar al-Assad DR

A preliminary inquiry was opened on 15 September into alleged crimes committed by the Syrian government between 2011 and 2013, a source told news agency AFP.

The investigation is largely based on 55,000 graphic photographs smuggled out of the country by a former Syrian army officer.

The photographer, known by the codename "Caesar", defected and fled the country in 2013. He now lives in France.

The pictures reportedly show 11,000 alleged victims of forces loyal to Assad.

They show people with their eyes gouged out and emaciated bodies, and one picture seems to show hundreds of corpses surrounded by plastic bags used for burials.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement Wednesday that the images have been authenticated by many experts, and demonstrate the “systematic cruelty” and mass torture of the Assad regime.

He says France has a responsibility to take action.

The hope is that the inquiry could add to political pressure on the Syrian leader as the West and Russia clash over Assad’s fate, and how to bring an end to Syria’s civil war.

The conflict has taken centre stage at the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

Meanwhile a monitoring group said on Wednesday that France’s first air strike on an Islamic State group training camp in Syria over the weekend killed at least 30 jihadists, including a dozen child soldiers.

French President Francois Hollande has said that more strikes could follow in the coming weeks.