Reuters,United Nations :Human Rights Watch says it has evidence that Syrian government forces have carried out hundreds of indiscriminate attacks over the past year with air-delivered munitions, including improvised weapons such as barrel bombsThe US-based group says the attacks have had a devastating impact on civilians, killing or injuring thousands of people.Barrel bombs are crudely made containers filled with nails, metal shrapnel and explosive which are dropped from helicopters.Government forces have repeatedly been accused on using these munitions during the war despite a UN resolution last year banning their indiscriminate use in populated areas.”For a year, the Security Council has done nothing to stop Bashar al-Assad’s murderous air bombing campaign on rebel-held areas, which has terrorised, killed, and displaced civilians,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview broadcast earlier this month that the Syrian air force did not use the lethal devices.US and European officials have said Assad’s denial was not credible.”While deaths from aerial attacks are not exclusively from barrel bombs, residents from rebel held territory in Daraa and Aleppo told Human Rights Watch that barrel bombs account for a majority of air strikes,” the group said.Human Rights Watch said it examined satellite imagery and had identified at least 450 major damage sites in 10 towns and villages held by rebels in the southwestern Daraa and more than 1,000 in northern Aleppo between February 22, 2014 and January 15, 2015.”These impact sites have damage signatures strongly consistent with the detonation of large, air-dropped munitions, including improvised barrel and conventional bombs dropped by helicopters,” the organization said in a statement.”Damages that possibly result from the use of rockets, missiles, or fuel-air bombs are also likely in a number of instances,” it said.The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on February 22 last year that demanded all parties stop indiscriminate attacks in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment such as the use of barrel bombs.Human Rights Watch said government-launched aerial bombardments had led to the deaths and injuries of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas. It cited a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which said barrel bombs had killed 6,163 civilians, including 1,892 children, since February 22, 2014.
