By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK (AA) - 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.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Feb. 22, 2014, that demanded all parties to the conflict in Syria end the indiscriminate use of barrel bombs and other weapons in civilian 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 terrorized, killed, and displaced civilians,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “Amid talk of a possible temporary cessation of strikes on Aleppo, the question is whether Russia and China will finally allow the UN Security Council to impose sanctions to stop barrel bombs.”
Using satellite imagery, the group said it identified more than 450 major damage sites in 10 towns and villages held by opposition groups in Daraa and more than 1,000 in Aleppo between Feb. 22, 2014, and Jan. 25, 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," read the report. "Damages that possibly result from the use of rockets, missiles, or fuel-air bombs are also likely in a number of instances."
It also said independent reports filed by Syrian groups tracking civilian casualties showed that the government attacks led to the death of thousands of civilians in opposition-held territory over the last year.
"The Security Council should impose an arms embargo on Syria’s government and any groups implicated in widespread or systematic human rights abuses," the New York-based group said. "Such an embargo would limit the Syrian government’s ability to conduct aerial attacks that violate international law, including by prohibiting providing Syria with new helicopters or providing outside support for servicing them."
It said a travel ban and an asset freeze should also be imposed on individuals implicated in grave human rights abuses.
“One year on, the onus is on Assad’s protectors on the Security Council to stop the slaughter of Syrian civilians by their government,” Houry said. “Other countries, including Western and emerging powers, should increase the pressure on Russia and China to stop blocking international action to curb the Syrian government’s deadly crimes,” he added.
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