CNN, Damascus :
A barrel bomb struck a center used by Syria’s civil defense volunteers, known as the White Helmets, in the country’s capital of Damascus, the group said.
The group tweeted that the center and vehicles at the scene were destroyed Wednesday, and some volunteers injured in the attack.
White Helmets members describe themselves as a group of 3,000 volunteers whose goal is to save lives in Syrian communities.
“We rush to the scene of attacks to save the greatest number of lives in the shortest possible time and to minimize further injury to people and damage to property,” the group says on its website.
Barrel bomb attacks are becoming more common as the war in Syria drags on in its fifth year.
The explosive-laden barrels are hurled out of helicopters.
When one strikes, it can produce the seismological equivalent of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta says.
Some of the most most deadly attacks since the start of the war have targeted the rebel-held areas in the city of Aleppo.
Barrel bombs killed more than 3,000 civilians in Aleppo in 2014, according to a report by Amnesty International.
The human rights organization said barrel bombs are a common tactic of the Syrian government, which has been fighting rebels since the civil war started in 2011. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied any use of barrel bombs by his forces.
Meanwhile, at least 20 Syrian rebels were killed in a blast at a border crossing with Turkey on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitoring group said it was unclear what caused the blast at the Atme crossing between Turkey and the northern Syrian province of Idlib, adding that around 20 people had also been wounded.
Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency confirmed the blast left 20 people dead at Atme, adding that it took place during a “change of guard” among Syrian rebels in the area.
The IS-linked Amaq news agency reported the blast, saying it was a car bomb, without carrying any formal claim of responsibility.
Rebel fighters have been targeted at the crossing before. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a mid-August suicide attack there that killed at least 32.
The rebels killed on Thursday were among those participating in Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield in neighbouring Aleppo province.
Ankara began the unprecedented cross-border operation on August 24, saying it was targeting both IS and the Kurdish YPG militia which Turkey considers a “terrorist” group.
A barrel bomb struck a center used by Syria’s civil defense volunteers, known as the White Helmets, in the country’s capital of Damascus, the group said.
The group tweeted that the center and vehicles at the scene were destroyed Wednesday, and some volunteers injured in the attack.
White Helmets members describe themselves as a group of 3,000 volunteers whose goal is to save lives in Syrian communities.
“We rush to the scene of attacks to save the greatest number of lives in the shortest possible time and to minimize further injury to people and damage to property,” the group says on its website.
Barrel bomb attacks are becoming more common as the war in Syria drags on in its fifth year.
The explosive-laden barrels are hurled out of helicopters.
When one strikes, it can produce the seismological equivalent of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta says.
Some of the most most deadly attacks since the start of the war have targeted the rebel-held areas in the city of Aleppo.
Barrel bombs killed more than 3,000 civilians in Aleppo in 2014, according to a report by Amnesty International.
The human rights organization said barrel bombs are a common tactic of the Syrian government, which has been fighting rebels since the civil war started in 2011. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied any use of barrel bombs by his forces.
Meanwhile, at least 20 Syrian rebels were killed in a blast at a border crossing with Turkey on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitoring group said it was unclear what caused the blast at the Atme crossing between Turkey and the northern Syrian province of Idlib, adding that around 20 people had also been wounded.
Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency confirmed the blast left 20 people dead at Atme, adding that it took place during a “change of guard” among Syrian rebels in the area.
The IS-linked Amaq news agency reported the blast, saying it was a car bomb, without carrying any formal claim of responsibility.
Rebel fighters have been targeted at the crossing before. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a mid-August suicide attack there that killed at least 32.
The rebels killed on Thursday were among those participating in Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield in neighbouring Aleppo province.
Ankara began the unprecedented cross-border operation on August 24, saying it was targeting both IS and the Kurdish YPG militia which Turkey considers a “terrorist” group.
