By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
Syria's civilian populated areas have been continuously pulverized by the Assad regime's bomb attacks despite a February UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to their indiscriminate use, the UN’s humanitarian chief said Monday.
“In many parts of Syria the level of violence has worsened, with civilians continuing to pay heavily with loss of life," Valerie Amos told the Security Council.
She said the use of barrel bombs -- oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel and dropped by aircraft - was particularly acute in the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Rural Damascus, Deir Ez-Zor, Ar-Raqqa and Da’ra.
The Security Council on Feb. 22 unanimously approved a resolution on limiting violence against civilians caught up in the ongoing Syrian civil war. The move marked the first time the was council united on the issue, with staunch Bashar al-Assad allies Russia and China yielding veto powers.
Amos said the number of Syrians who required humanitarian assistance reached 12.2 million, pointing to an increase of 2.9 million people in just 10 months.
Almost half of the Syrian population is now displaced with more than 7.6 million internally displaced people and as many as 3 million refugees in neighboring countries, she said.
The conflict in Syria that began in March 2011 has claimed nearly 200,000 lives, according to the UN.
The unrest created by the civil war paved the way for extremist movements such as ISIL to gain a foothold in the region.
“We have run out of words to fully explain the brutality, violence and callous disregard for human life which is a hallmark of this crisis,” Amos said. “The international community has become numb to its impact with the vast numbers, regional reach and sense of political impasse,” she added.
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