ANKARA
British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Phillip Hammond has condemned the Bashar al-Assad regime for its use of barrel bombs against civilians in Syria.
Hammond’s comments came Wednesday after mobile phone video footage emerged, reportedly shot by regime soldiers, showing barrel bombs being dropped from a helicopter.
Opposition Syrian forces allegedly found the phone with the video content at a crash sit of a helicopter in Idlib province; the forces later then passed on the video to the Qatar-based television channel, Al Jazeera.
“This video footage exposes Assad’s lies on barrel bombs,” Hammond said in an official statement. “It shows the casual and indiscriminate way in which Syrian regime forces are dropping these horrific weapons out of helicopters onto civilians below,” he added.
He also said that the UN had called for an end to these attacks, but Assad continued to ignore international outrage.
“We will bring those involved in these criminal acts to justice and will continue to help those caught in attacks by continuing our support of rescue teams working on the ground,” he said.
The Assad regime has frequently and publicly denied that it was using such types of bombs against civilians.
Barrel bombs are improvised containers typically packed with shrapnel and explosives. Their rudimentary nature means they are unguided and are believed to have killed thousands of Syrians.
