UN probe of Syria confirms at least 8 massacres by Assad regime and supporters, 1 by rebels

GENEVA – A U.N. commission says it has confirmed at least eight massacres perpetrated in Syria by President Bashar Assad's regime and supporters and, one carried out by rebels, over the past year and a half.

Calling Syria a battlefield where "massacres are perpetrated with impunity," the U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria also says it is probing nine more suspected mass killings since March.

Its latest report Wednesday updates its work from 2011 until mid-July, stopping short of what the United States says was an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas that killed hundreds of civilians.

The commission created by the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council in Geneva says both sides have committed heinous war crimes during the 2 ½-year conflict that has killed over 100,000 people.