Assad forces use barrel bombs again despite US warnings

Helicopters belonging to the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad have dropped barrel bombs again despite US warnings against the practice, Anadolu has reported. The bombs were dropped on Wednesday on parts of the city of Daraa damaging a number of homes, said local civil defence officials.

According to Mohamed Al-Zuz, no casualties were reported after the attacks. “The regime and Russia have stepped up attacks on Daraa this month,” he added. “Since 1 April, regime helicopters have dropped at least 78 barrel bombs on opposition-held parts of the city.”

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In the wake of a deadly chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province on 4 April, the White House warned that it would respond with force to any further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.

While most barrel bombs dropped in recent weeks have targeted Daraa, they have also been used in Syria’s Idlib and Hama provinces and on the outskirts of Damascus. The UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights claimed that the Assad regime has dropped as many as 32,000 barrel bombs since the beginning of 2015, killing more than 2,500 people in the process.

Two days after the chemical attack in Idlib, US military forces fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian regime’s Al-Shayrat Air Base, damaging the facility extensively. Following the barrage, Moscow and Tehran issued a joint statement in which they declared that further “acts of aggression” by Washington would “not be tolerated.”