The ICRC has stated that the violence in Syria constitutes an non-international armed conflict. This is significant because it means the organization tasked with guarding and promoting the Geneva Conventions is declaring that at least portions of the Geneva Conventions (especially Common Article 3) applies to the conflict and unlawful attacks on non-combatants could be prosecuted as war crimes.

At Lawfare Blog, University of Texas’ Robert Chesney has a terrific round-up of legal questions this raises, including the “legal geography of war,” whether Assad will draw on precedent set by US targeted killings to argue that some noncombatants are legitimate targets, whether the war is already internationalized, and how far the ICRC’s view on the matter is decisive.