TODAY’S MESOP SYRIA INSIGHT (I) CAPITOL WAR CRIMES : 38 barrel bombs fall on Aleppo as ICRC makes humanitarian plea

Thirty-eight barrel bombs fell on rebel-controlled east Aleppo neighborhoods on Tuesday as the Syrian air force continued its months-long campaign to regain control there. The barrel bomb campaign coincided with a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)decrying humanitarian conditions in Aleppo and deploring “all parties to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

The ICRC “is appalled by a sharp escalation of violence,” the statement reads, adding that the only crossing between government- and rebel-held areas of the divided city has been closed for months. For more than a week, there has been no electricity in Syria’s former industrial capital, compounding other humanitarian crises and limiting access to clean water, a shortage pro-government newspaper al-Watan blamed on “terrorist groups” who cut the main pumping station north of the city.