JUBA, South Sudan — The main opposition group in South Sudan demanded Monday an international probe into alleged rights abuses in recent fighting that saw government troops target areas loyal to the group's longtime leader, Riek Machar, who is under house arrest.
Machar, the country's vice president whose political rivalry with President Salva Kiir has repeatedly threatened to tip South Sudan back into civil war, is accused of subversion.
Since March, fighting has engulfed the north, where government troops battled a rebel militia known as the White Army, widely believed to be allied with Machar, with dozens killed. The rebels overran an army base in the town of Nasir, a Machar stronghold. Government troops responded with airstrikes and also attacked opposition forces' barracks outside the capital, Juba.
Spokesman Pal Mai Deng from Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-In-Opposition said the international community should investigate ''airstrikes using chemical weapons" in areas such as Nasir.
He did not elaborate. The statement came after Human Rights Watch last week reported the use of air-dropped incendiary weapons by government forces that have ''killed and horrifically burned dozens of people, including children, and destroyed civilian infrastructure in Upper Nile state.''
The government, which has ordered civilians to leave Nasir, couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Along with Machar's house arrest, many of his allies have also been detained.
Incendiary weapons inflict burns on victims, but they also cause fires that can indiscriminately destroy civilian property, the New York-based rights group said.
''Use of these weapons in populated areas violates international humanitarian law, and if done with criminal intent, constitutes a war crime,'' HRW said.
