Human Rights Watch Protests Continued Use of Barrel Bombs in Syria

On Tuesday, March 5, Human Rights Watch called for various sanctions, including arms sanctions, to punish the Syrian regime for its "continued use of barrel bombs" against the government of Bashar al-Assad in the country. According to Agence France-Presse, Human Rights Watch states that an arms embargo would reduce the Syrian regime's ability to conduct airstrikes and prevent it from purchasing new helicopters or repairing existing ones. The organization claims that using satellite images, it has identified at least 450 damaged sites in 10 cities and villages in Daraa province and over a thousand damaged sites in Aleppo city, indicating extensive use of barrel bombs against these areas over the past year. This organization adds that the dropping of barrel bombs by the helicopters of Bashar al-Assad's regime has killed thousands of civilians and is one of the main reasons for the displacement of many people in the country. A barrel bomb is a bomb made from large oil barrels or gas cylinders filled with a large amount of explosives and metal fragments, which is dropped from helicopters. According to Nadim Houry, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, attacks with these bombs in Syria have "rendered some cities and neighborhoods completely uninhabitable." During nearly four years of civil war in Syria, more than 210,000 people have lost their lives, and nearly 12 million have been displaced, including 3.8 million who have fled to Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, last week called on the Security Council to take action to stop the use of barrel bombs in Syria and prioritize this issue. A year ago, the UN Security Council issued a resolution demanding that Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, cease attacks with cluster bombs. However, this month, Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with BBC News, denied that his forces use barrel bombs and unguided weapons, describing such reports as "childish tales." In this context, the United States called reports of Syria's attack on a refugee camp "horrific." The Syrian army "bombarded" a refugee camp with barrel bombs. Bashar al-Assad stated that he is aware of coalition airstrikes against Syria. The UN is set to publish a list of war criminals in Syria.