UNITED NATIONS, February 16. /TASS/. Under the pretext of fighting the international terrorism, Western countries blatantly violated human rights during their operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maria Zabolotskaya said.

"When we hear our Western colleagues make their well-known points about the importance of protecting human rights in the implementation of counter-terrorism measures and the need to respect international law, we should not forget about gross violations of human rights by the West during their operations under the pretext of counter-terrorism in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria and also during the long-standing presence of the French military in the Sahel," she told the UN Security Council.

"The sudden concern of the representatives of the collective West for human rights stands in stark contrast to the term ‘collateral damage,’ which they normally use to camouflage the numerous civilian casualties that occurred in indiscriminate bombings of cities and the allegedly targeted attacks on terrorists carried out by the ‘human rights advocates’ themselves," the diplomat continued.

She also recalled secret CIA prisons, including those in the European Union, as well as the brutal conditions and torture in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, "which the Western military put on film to brag to friends.".