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.

There is adequate logic behind the basic idea of such a weapon, depending on its usage. And there is some visual evidence of government forces indeed dropping explosives-laden barrels with welded tailfins from helicopters (some images or videos might be dubious or fake, but not likely all of them). However, when activists produce dead and suffering civilians in areas they administer, and claim it was one of these bombs that caused it, there is ample cause for skepticism. In many circles, that seems to get skipped over on the way to quick acceptance of the claim, and especially the central "fell from a helicopter" part of the story.

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.


 * A BBC report offers a graphic summary; from January 2014 to March 2015, in attacks described as done by this weapon: 3,124 civilians killed vs. 35 rebel fighters. The attacks had also damaged 3 schools, 17 hospitals, and 23 mosques.