Barrel bomb

"Barrel bombs" are weapons of massive and indiscriminate damage and civilian deaths, allegedly all made and deployed by Syrian government forces, dropped from aircraft (helicopters) on rebel-held areas. The way these crude but powerful explosives fall straight down from a hovering helicopters is widely described as "indiscriminate," and they point to the almost totally civilian death from attacks described as done with barrel bombs. Pro-intervention activist reports have such attacks happening on a near daily basis in 2014 and 2015, using the charges increasingly as a reason for an imposed "No Fly Zone" over at least parts of Syria. From March 2015, increasingly the accusation was expanded to barrel bombs that disperse chlorine gas, dropped on areas of Idlib and neighboring provinces, that had been "liberated" by Jabhat al-Nusra. See:
 * Aleppo "Barrel Bombs Massacre"
 * Talk:Alleged Chemical Attack, March 16, 2015‎

Sources and claims

 * The Barrel Bomb Plant: Uncovering Assad's Secret Factory May 28th, 2015 by Tamaddun (Syrian opposition magazine)
 * ''Banias, an oil refinery city on Syria's Mediterranean coast, is home to one of the Assad regime's secret barrel bomb factories
 * ''The barrel bomb: a tremendous iron tank filled with explosives and organic fertilizers, and stuffed with sharp metal objects. Its weight ranges between a quarter to half a ton, and is dropped randomly from regime helicopters flying at high altitudes in order to avoid opposition fire. The barrel usually targets opposition-held cities or villages, deliberately causing death and injury among civilians.