The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged both sides in Syria's civil war on Monday, May 6 to allow swift evacuation of the dead and wounded, many of them civilians, who often lie abandoned for days or months in intense urban fighting, Reuters reported.

The ICRC reminded the government and the rebels that international humanitarian law requires bodies to be removed promptly and respectfully, and the injured to be evacuated for treatment.

"We ... call on the conflict parties to spare civilians and permit them to be withdrawn to safety and to allow the wounded to be evacuated and dead bodies to be recovered," Magne Barth, new head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, said in a statement issued in Geneva.