Syrian government forces have dropped barrel bombs on Aleppo nearly daily this year, amounting to the war crime of targeting civilians, Reuters cited U.N. investigators saying on Tuesday 23 JUNE 2015.
This year, government planes and helicopters have bombarded areas of eastern Aleppo province, “mostly barrel bombings – on a nearly daily basis,” the independent experts said. Its bombing of towns and cities in Deraa and Idlib had also intensified.
“The continuing use of barrel bombs in aerial campaigns against whole areas, rather than specific targets, is in violation of international humanitarian law and, as previously documented, amounts to the war crime of targeting civilians,” the report said.
The investigators, who have drawn up five confidential lists of suspected war criminals on all sides, warned: “The flight paths of helicopters responsible for the dropping of barrel bombs are being documented. Those in command of the bases and airstrips where helicopters are loaded and from where they take off must be held accountable.”
U.S. ambassador Keith Harper denounced the Damascus government’s use of barrel bombs and imprisonment of “tens of thousands of Syrians, subjecting them to torture, sexual violence, inhumane conditions and denial of fair trials”.