MESOP : THE DIPLOMATIC “DIALOGUE PARTNER”ACTS AS A WAR CRIMINAL Human Rights Watch: Syria regime barrel bombing civilians

Waar, Duhok: 25 Feb 2015 – The Syrian regime has carried out hundreds of air attacks that have killed thousands of civilians in the past year, a U.S. rights group said Tuesday.Regime forces have indiscriminately deployed high explosive air-delivered munitions, including barrel bombs, on civilians in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution ordering an end to the use of these weapons, Human Rights Watch said in a damning report. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed in an interview earlier in February that his forces were not using barrel bombs despite evidence to the contrary. Barrel bombs are made from oil drums filled with high explosives and shrapnel to enhance fragmentation, and then dropped from helicopters. Cheaply made and locally produced, they are more destructive than conventional bombs.