The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime Dropped About 11,000 Barrel Bombs on Daraa Governorate, Killing 1,177 Civilians, Forty Percent of Whom Were Women and Children’, in which the group notes that the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs has contributed to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, paving the way for seizing their lands and properties.

The report notes that the Syrian regime began using barrel bombs as a weapon in July 2012. These lethal bombs, manufactured in designated workshops, were used by the regime to target areas that had broken free of its control. The report gives a brief description of the manufacturing process and the nature of the barrel bombs’ use, as well as explaining how the plentiful evidence confirms that barrel bombs are crude, indiscriminate weapons which it is virtually impossible to use with any precision to hit specific targets. As such, those deploying them cannot realistically distinguish between civilian and military targets in their deployment, meaning that their use constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.

Moreover, the report gives a brief summary of SNHR’s rigorous work on documenting the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs. On this issue, SNHR has released hundreds of news items and dozens of reports that have been used as sources by various international bodies and governments worldwide, especially since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2139, which explicitly condemned the regime’s use of barrel bombs, and requested that the UN Secretary-General submit periodic reports assessing whether or not the regime had stopped using these weapons.

The report notes that regime helicopters and fixed-wing warplanes dropped no fewer than 81,916 barrel bombs across Syria between July 2012 and March 2020, the last month in which barrel bombs were documented to have been used, killing at least 11,087 civilians, including 1,821 children and 1,780 women (adult female). In addition, barrel bombs were used in no fewer than 728 attacks on vital civilian facilities, including 104 attacks on medical facilities, 188 on schools, 205 on mosques, and 57 on markets. The regime also used barrel bombs loaded with toxic gases in 93 attacks, while barrel bombs loaded with incendiary substances were used in four attacks that targeted civilian areas.

This report forms part of SNHR’s work on documenting the use of barrel bombs. To that end, the report focuses on the use of these crude, indiscriminate weapons in Daraa governorate, which was among the first governorates where barrel bombs were used by the regime to target civilian populations, vital civilian facilities, and the areas furthest from the battlefronts in those parts of the governorate that broke free of the regime’s control. As SNHR documented in great detail, the regime’s use of barrel bombs in the governorate resulted in dozens of massacres of civilians, as well as widespread destruction, in addition to causing mass panic among civilian residents who were terrified at the potential consequences of the explosion of these lethal and devastating weapons.

The report documents that Syrian regime military aircraft and warplanes dropped about 11,153 barrel bombs on Daraa governorate between July 2012 and August 2018. The year 2015 saw the highest number of barrel bombs dropped on the governorate in one year, followed by 2017, then 2014. The barrel bombs dropped in those three years combined accounted for 75 percent of all barrel bombs dropped on the governorate.

The report documents 1,177 civilian deaths, including those of 272 children and 193 women (adult female), as a result of the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs in Daraa governorate between July 2012 and August 2018. The report also emphasizes that women and child victims accounted for about 40 percent of all civilian deaths from Syrian regime barrel bomb attacks in Daraa governorate, with this incredibly high percentage confirming that these attacks specifically targeted civilians. Meanwhile, barrel bombs were used in at least 39 attacks on vital civilian facilities in Daraa governorate in the same period. These included 11 attacks on medical facilities, six on schools, six on places of worship, and four on markets, according to SNHR’s database.

The report also notes that the Syrian regime, supported by Russia and Iran, has consistently followed a “scorched earth” policy against areas outside its control in Daraa governorate, carrying out military operations with intensive and brutal ground and air bombardment, which included the use of barrel bombs, all in order to force the inhabitants of these areas to accept settlement agreements imposed on the regime’s terms in exchange for the right to be free of the harrowing ordeal of bombardment and military operations.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime showed an utter disregard for UN Security Council resolution 2139, which was adopted on February 22, 2014, breaching it about 9,428 times in Daraa governorate alone. In this, the regime heavily and excessively used barrel bombs in its offensives on Daraa, and only ended its use of this indiscriminate weapon in August 2018, following its announcement that it had seized full control of the governorate. SNHR has recorded no use of barrel bombs in Daraa governorate since August 2018 as of this writing.

The report contains a number of conclusions drawn from SNHR’s exhaustive work on this issue, including confirmation that the Syrian regime’s objective in using barrel bombs has been to inflict as much human and material loss and devastation as possible in the areas inhabited by dissident populations, where the regime had lost control. That is to say that inflicting destruction is a goal in and of itself for the regime. Given the inevitable results of this destruction, it’s clear that the regime set out to deliberately displace as many residents as possible, specifically from those areas whose populations had expressed opposition to regime rule, and then to exploit these deliberately displaced people’s absence in any future reconstruction process, in which the regime would have the upper hand, thanks to an arsenal of quasi-legal laws and legislative articles passed specifically to allow it to seize control of the properties of missing and displaced persons. It must be noted that targeting residential areas with these lethal indiscriminate weapons amounts to a war crime, while killing civilians in this manner is a crime against humanity. The UN Security Council’s and the international community’s failure to deter the Syrian regime has emboldened the regime to continue to use these primitive and barbaric weapons.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to condemn the Syrian regime’s failure to comply with UN Security Council resolution 2139 and to hold it fully responsible for the destruction, displacement, and subsequent pillaging of land and property. Furthermore, the report calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) to document all violations in Daraa governorate, particularly housing and property rights violations which were the result of the Syrian regime’s destroying tens of thousands of buildings in the governorate. Additionally, the report stresses that, at the level of the international community, no form of relations should be re-established with the Syrian regime, which has used primitive barrel bombs against its own people, killing, destroying, and displacing millions of Syrians. The report also makes a number of additional recommendations.

Press release:
 
(Link below to download full report)
 
Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its report released today that the Syrian regime has dropped nearly 82,000 barrel bombs in nine years, killing 11,087 civilians, including 1,821 children, noting that the Security Council Resolution 2139 must be implemented and perpetrators of indiscriminate bombardment, destruction and forced displacement must be held accountable.
 
The 35-page report describes barrel bombs as a primitive, barbaric weapon, adding that their use is a disgrace even among the world’s weakest armies. It notes that the Syrian regime has used a vast range of weapons over the past nine years in its efforts to crush the popular uprising that turned into an internal armed conflict in 2012, with the regime gradually introducing newer and ever more terrible weapons. The report further indicates that what particularly distinguishes the Syrian regime’s brutality over its peers is its use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs.
 
The report provided the latest data from the Syrian Network for Human Rights about the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs, adding that SNHR uses the term ‘barrel bombs’ to refer collectively to all locally manufactured containers filled with explosive materials.
The report reveals that the Syrian regime has extensively used this weapon for several reasons; the first of these is the absence of any deterrent response by the UN Security Council and the international community to its use of such a primitive and barbaric weapon; second is that barrel bombs are crude, low-cost, homemade devices, simple to manufacture, with a highly destructive capacity, equivalent to about seven mortar shells per barrel bomb; third is the Syrian regime’s indifference to the indiscriminate effects of this weapon, and its failure to distinguish between civilians or combatants, since this barbaric weapon is often dropped from helicopters, depending on the principle of freefall and thus untargeted meaning that its use amounts to a war crime, and lastly the Syrian regime does not care about the reputation of the army institution, but rather uses it as a tool in maintaining power.
 
Fadel Abdul Ghany, Director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, says:
“We no longer hear even condemnations of the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs against civilians, with this strategy based on repeating bombardment hundreds or thousands of times until condemnation or documentation becomes futile, and the Syrian community reaches a stage of despair and surrender. The Security Council bears the responsibility for implementing its own resolution, which it has failed to do since the resolution was adopted in February 2014, and the failure is still continuing to date.”
 
The report details the record of the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs since the first use of this weapon documented by SNHR in July 2012 up until April 2021 and the deaths and attacks on vital civilian facilities resulting from this use. The report also outlines incidents that occurred after the publication of the previous extensive report that the SNHR issued in 2017.
The report relies on the monitoring and documentation processes of the use of barrel bombs within the context of documenting incidents in which violations occur, as well as on the continuous work for more than nine years, which enabled the SNHR to build up an extensive database documenting all these violations. The report catalogues the death toll of victims according to the governorate in which they were killed, rather than by the governorate they originally came from. This method is used in order to identify the extent of the human losses caused by the use of barrel bombs in each of the Syrian governorates.
 
The report details the stages of manufacturing barrel bombs, starting from manufacturing the outer casing of the barrel bomb, then filling the barrel bombs with explosive materials, consisting mainly of ammonium nitrate, then installing the detonator. The report reveals that SNHR has documented hundreds of incidents in which the Syrian regime used unfamiliar objects to fill these lethal bombs, such as iron ball bearings, anti-tank mines and explosive hoses, in addition to its use of barrel bombs containing poison gases in 93 attacks, and barrel bombs containing incendiary substances believe to be napalm in four attacks. The report presents a map showing the sites of the most prominent facilities where barrel bombs are manufactured.
 
The report notes that it took the UN Security Council about a year-and-a-half after the Syrian regime first began using barrel bombs, to adopt Resolution No. 2139 on February 22, 2014, which condemned the use of barrel bombs, mentioning them by name, and calling on the Syrian regime to cease their use. The Syrian regime has violated this resolution hundreds of times, however, with the Security Council signally failing to take any additional steps or implement the resolution it issued, with the report documenting that nearly 81,916 barrel bombs have been dropped by the Syrian regime’s helicopters and fixed-wing warplanes from July 2012 up until April 2021 ; of these, 21,013 barrel bombs were dropped before the adoption of Security Council Resolution No. 2139, and 60,903 barrel bombs were dropped since its adoption.
 
The report provides charts showing the cumulative index of barrel bombs’ usage and their distribution by years and across Syrian governorates, as well as the distribution of the record of barrel bombs across governorates by years. SNHR’s data analysis shows that the governorates of Damascus and Damascus Suburbs saw the highest number of barrel bombs used (approximately 29% of the total record), followed by Aleppo governorate (approximately 21%), then Daraa (approximately 14%) and Idlib (approximately 13%). According to years, meanwhile, 2014 saw the highest number of barrel bombs dropped, followed by 2015 then 2013, with these three years seeing the Syrian regime Air Force dropping at least 51,948 barrel bombs in total, meaning 64% of the total documented number of barrel bombs used.
 
The report documents the deaths of 11,087 civilians, including 1,821 children and 1,780 women (adult female), as a result of the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs from July 2012 up until April 2021, with the death toll among children and women constituting approximately 33% of the total death toll of civilian victims, which is a very high percentage that confirms the attacks targeted civilians. The report also provides charts showing the cumulative index of the death toll and its distribution by years and across Syrian governorates, as well as the distribution of the death toll across governorates by years. The analysis of the data showed that the largest death toll was documented in Aleppo governorate (approximately 52%), then Idlib (approximately 17%) and Daraa (approximately 11%). By years, meanwhile, the highest death toll was in 2014 and then in 2015, with the civilian death toll in these two years being approximately 69% of the total death toll.
 
As the report reveals, barrel bombs were used in at least 728 attacks on vital civilian facilities, including 104 attacks on medical facilities, 188 on schools, 205 on mosques and 57 on markets. The report provides the distribution of this record by years, which showed that the largest record of attacks on vital civilian facilities was in 2015, followed by 2014 then 2016.
 
As the report further notes, the brutal bombardment using barrel bombs, the destruction of homes and the state of terror that they cause, and their destruction and damage of vital facilities, have forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to be displaced from their areas, fleeing to seek safety for themselves and their families. The latest estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicate that approximately 13.3 million Syrians are now IDPs or refugees, while the report estimates that approximately 70%, i.e. 9.5 million, of the forcibly displaced persons, have been forced to leave their homes as a result of aerial bombardment launched mainly by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces, in which barrel bombs have played a central role due to their widespread use, indiscriminate nature and significant destructive impact.
 
The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s direct responsibility for using barrel bombs, assigning responsibility primarily to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces, his deputy, the Director of the Air Force, the Air Intelligence Department, the commanders of military airbases and the squadron directors, in addition to the directors of scientific research units, who bear the greatest responsibility for using this weapon; the report provides their names as individuals believed to be implicated in the crime of using barrel bombs.
 
The report stresses that the Syrian government has, beyond any doubt, violated Security Council Resolutions 2139 and 2254, and used barrel bombs in a systematic, widespread manner. Also, the Syrian government, through the crime of willful killing, has violated Article 7 of the Rome Statute in a systematic and widespread manner which constitutes crimes against humanity.
The report adds that Syrian regime forces have violated the rules of international human rights law that guarantee the right to life. In addition, these violations were committed during a non-international armed conflict, meaning that they amount to war crimes, with all elements for this classification being fulfilled.
 
The report further adds that through the use of barrel bombs filled with poison gases, the Syrian regime has violated the rules of customary international humanitarian law which prohibits the use of chemical weapons regardless of the circumstances. Secondly, the Syrian regime has, beyond any doubt, violated the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) which the Syrian government acceded to in September 2013, with, the use of chemical weapons constituting a war crime according to ICC’s Rome Statute.
 
The report stresses that none of the factors involved in the deployment of barrel bombs, whether the systematic, widespread, repeated nature of the bombardment, the excessive level of force used, the indiscriminate nature of the bombing or the coordinated approach of the attacks, would be possible without high-level orders and without such attacks comprising a part of state policy.
 
The report calls on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government, and to prosecute all those who provide it with money and weapons, more especially given the risk of these weapons being used in gross human rights crimes and violations.
 
The report also provides a set of recommendations to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), as well as other additional recommendations.
 

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The Syrian Network for Human Rights has today issued a report documenting the most important types of weapons used by the Russian-Syrian alliance on populated areas in northwestern Syria during the recent military campaign.
 
The 25-page report reveals that the Russian regime has treated the northwestern region of Syria as a real and effective training ground for testing weapons manufactured by Russian companies, using Syria as a laboratory rather than testing the weapons in empty areas within Russia, with the Russian regime unashamed to repeatedly announce its testing of weapons on Syrian territory against civilian targets, including hospitals, schools, markets and residential buildings, amid unprecedented international silence.
 
The report highlights the types and quantities of the most notable types of weapons used by the Russian-Syrian alliance against the northwestern region of Syria between April 26, 2019, and August 19, 2019, such as incendiary weapons, cluster munitions, regular missiles, nails-filled missiles, and barrel bombs, extending to chemical weapons of mass destruction, stressing that the attacks by the Russian-Syrian alliance have taken place almost daily and that this widespread and repeated use of multiple types of weapons is taking place within a confined geographical area of almost 7,000 square kilometers, with nearly 3.2 million inhabitants either residents or displaced people, more than half of whom are women and children, with all of this causing a wave of fear, terror and repeated displacement.
 
Fadel Abdul Ghany, Chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, adds:
“The indifference of the international community, and in particular the civilized leading countries of the world, to what is happening in northwestern Syria has given carte blanche to Russia to issue terrible announcements of its marketing of new types of weapons tested in Syria, and has enabled the Syrian regime to repeatedly use barrel bombs, cluster munitions and chemical weapons. International Humanitarian Law has never been insulted in this way before. All legal professionals in the world must stand up to the war crimes committed by Syrian Regime forces, Russia and the other parties to the conflict.”
 
Since the beginning of the escalation and the military attacks by the Russian, Iranian and Syrian Regime forces on the fourth de-escalation zone on April 26, 2019, up until August 19, 2019, the report documents at least 3,172 barrel bombs, 22 cluster munitions attacks, 20 incendiary weapons attacks, seven nail-filled missile attacks, and one chemical weapons attack.
 
The report also states that at least 843 civilians, including 223 children, and 152 women (adult female) were killed in the fourth de-escalation zone by Russian-Syrian alliance forces in the same period covered by the report, of whom Syrian Regime forces killed 670 civilians, including 184 children and 120 women, while Russian forces killed 173 civilians, including 39 children and 32 women.
According to the report, the attacks by Russian-Syrian alliance forces resulted in at least 381 assaults on civilian vital facilities, including 82 on places of worship, 112 on schools, 48 on medical facilities, and 39 on Civil Defense Centers. The Syrian regime was responsible for 284 attacks, while Russian forces were responsible for 97 attacks.
 
The report notes that the Syrian and Russian regimes’ use of various types of improvised weapons, indiscriminately and sometimes intentionally, against populated areas and vital facilities has caused panic and terror among residents, forcibly displacing them, either as IDPs or refugees, or forcing them to flee towards areas controlled by the Syrian regime or Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, because these areas are safer, especially in the absence of aerial bombardment daily and suddenly threatening the lives of residents there. In addition, these weapons cause massive destruction to properties, houses and shops owned by Syrian citizens who have spent many years and often whole lifetimes on building and maintaining them, with these attacks destroying livelihoods as well as homes, and forcing the displacement of residents, stripping them of their most precious possessions and pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy.
 
As the report states, for eight years, the Syrian regime has committed grave crimes and violations against Syrian civilians. It has also consistently failed to respond to any of the demands of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, or to those of the High Commission for Human Rights, or even to Security Council resolutions. The Security Council, which was supposed to take collective measures and action under Article 41 and 42 of the Charter of the United Nations, also failed because of the immunity granted by Russia to the Syrian regime, with Russia routinely using its veto in the case of the Syrian regime, which not only failed to abide by the responsibility for the protection of civilians, but committed the most egregious violations against them, reaching the level of crimes against humanity, and extermination within detention centers through torture.
 
Furthermore, according to the report, the conscience-shocking situations which the UN is required to take action to prevent are exactly what have continued to happen in Syria, not only in the form of one massacre or one violation but in industrial-scale, continuous killings and torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, the use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs, and besieging civilians, quoting from a report issued in December 2001 by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which stressed that: “The Security Council should take into account in all its deliberations that, if it fails to discharge its responsibility to protect in conscience-shocking situations crying out for action, concerned states may not rule out other means to meet the gravity and urgency of that situation.”
 
The report stresses that the use of outlawed weapons by Syrian Regime forces, as well as by Russian forces, is considered a violation of both the principles of distinction and of proportionality in international humanitarian law, and constitutes a war crime, noting that the Syrian government has unquestionably violated the UN Security Council Resolutions No. 2139 and 2254 and used barrel bombs in a systematic and widespread manner, and also violated Article 7 of the Rome Statute by committing intentional homicide in a systematic and widespread manner, with these actions constituting crimes against humanity.
 
The report further notes that Syrian Regime forces in all their forms and their leaders are involved in committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Syrian people, and that anyone who provides them with material, political and military assistance, such as the Russian and Iranian government, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and others, is considered a partner in these crimes, and is thereby subject to criminal prosecution.
 
The report calls on the Security Council to ensure the serious implementation of its resolutions, in particular Resolution 2139 on the cessation of the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian regime, with these resolutions having turned into mere, meaningless ink on paper, meaning that the Security Council has absolutely lost any credibility, along with the legitimacy of its existence.
The report also calls on the four other permanent Security Council members to put pressure on the Russian government to end its support for the Syrian regime, which uses chemical weapons and barrel bombs, and to expose its involvement in this regard.
 
The report calls on the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government, and to prosecute all those who provide it with money and weapons, given the risk of these weapons being used in serious human rights crimes and violations.
 
The report considers that in the Syrian case, the Security Council has the authority to refer the case to the International Criminal Court, and notes that it has been blocking this action for five years rather than providing all facilitations and imposing peace and security, calling on it to begin to prosecute anyone proved involved in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
 
The report urges the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to consider documenting incidents indicating the use of indiscriminate and outlawed weapons by the Syrian-Russian alliance, and to prepare a special report on the locations where Syrian-Russian alliance forces used cluster bombs in order to warn the people of these areas and expedite the clearance of unexploded ordnance.
 
The report further calls for action to be taken on the national and regional levels to form alliances to support the Syrian people by protecting them from daily killing, adding that steps should be taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, while asserting the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly, should be implemented. The Security Council is still hindering the protection of civilians in Syria.
 
The report calls on the Russian and Iranian regimes to stop supporting the Syrian regime with weapons and troops after several bodies in the United Nations and international organizations have proven their involvement in committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, with continued support for the Syrian regime considered to be direct involvement in these crimes, and to stop treating Syrian territory as a testing ground for the marketing and sale of Russian weapons.
 

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SNHR has released a report entitled: “The Ruthless Bombing” which documents that Syrian regime forces has dropped nearly 70,000 barrel bombs since July 2012.
 
The report says that the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian regime army manifest one of the most appalling ways in which the international community has blatantly let down the Syrian people as these barrel bombs have been forgotten almost completely in the last year with no condemnations to be heard about the repeated use of this barbarian type of weapons. Additionally, the report questions the possibility of accepting a regime that drops barbarian barrels on its own country without agreeing to any form of political settlements, except for one that rehabilitees it and only leads to giving some ceremonial ministries to its opponents.
 
Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of SNHR, says:
“The repeated use of this arbitrary, indiscriminate weapon against residential communities is a message to the Syrian people that protecting civilians and the international law are mere illusions, and that you have to submit and accept the regime that is killing you. Security Council has to take decisive action against the Syrian regime’s use of arbitrary weapon on this large, widespread scale. The U.N. special envoy has also to play a more effectual role in putting an end to the winter of barrel bombs in Syria.”
 
The report documents the toll of barrel bomb use by Syrian regime forces from the first time it was used in July 2012 until December 2017 and the resultant casualties and attacks on vital civilian facilities. The report stresses that the use of barrel bombs haven’t stopped for even one month, including the months that saw de-escalation agreements or Geneva Talks.
 
The report draws upon the daily, ongoing, routine monitoring and documentation efforts, in addition to accounts by survivors, eyewitnesses, and local media activists as the report contains nine accounts. Also, the report relies on videos and pictures that were posted online.
 
The report sheds light on the nature of barrel bombs, manufacture methods used by the Syrian regime, types of containers and explosive materials, and whatever chemical or incendiary substances that are added in some cases. Also, the report outlines a number of areas where the Syrian regime used barrel bombs heavily in the context of military progression such as Darayya city and Khan al Sheih town in Damascus suburbs, and al Mayadeen city in Deir Ez-Zour.
 
The report records that no less than 68,334 barrel bombs have been dropped by Syrian regime helicopters or fixed-wing warplanes from its first documented use in July 2012 until December 2017. These barrel bombs have resulted in the killing of 10,763 civilians, including 1,734 children and 1,689 women (adult female). In addition, no less than 565 attacks on vital civilian facilities were recorded in which barrel bombs were used, including 76 on medical facilities, 140 on schools, 160 on mosques, and 50 on markets.
 
According to the report, the governorates that saw the largest portion of barrel bombs were Damascus and its suburbs, followed by Aleppo and then Daraa while barrel bombs were used the most in 2015 where Syrian regime forces dropped 17,318 barrel bombs in that year alone.
 
The report says that Security Council resolution 2139 represented some hope for the Syrian people due to the fact that barrel bombs were explicitly mentioned in that resolution which also promised to take further steps in the case of non-compliance. However, the rate of barrel bomb use, according to the report, never changed after the resolution was adopted. The report divides the overall toll of barrel bombs before and after the resolution as the report records no less than 20,183 barrel bombs since from July 2012 to February 22, 2014, when the resolution was adopted, while no less than 48,151 barrel bombs were documented in the period of time from the resolution was adopted until December 2017.
 
According to the report, 87 attacks with barrel bombs loaded with a poison gas and four attacks with barrel bombs loaded with incendiary ammunitions were recorded. All of these attacks took place after Security Council resolution 2139 was adopted.
 
The report stresses that the Syrian government has, beyond any doubt, violated Security Council Resolutions 2139 and 2254, and used barrel bombs in a systematic, widespread manner. Also, the Syrian government, through the crime of willful killing, has violated Article 7 of Rome Statute as well as the rules of the international human rights law, which guarantee the right to life. Seeing that these crimes were committed in a non-international armed conflict, it constitutes war crimes.
 
The report adds that barrel bomb attacks are an indiscriminate bombing that targeted defenseless civilians and caused significant damages to civilian objects. The damage was too excessive compared to the anticipated military benefit.
 
According to the report, The Syrian regime has violated the rules of the customary international law, the CWC, and all relevant Security Council resolutions -particularly 2118, 2209, and 2235- through the use of barrel bombs. Additionally, using chemical weapons constitutes a war crime according to the ICC’s Rome Statue.
 
Furthermore, the report says that Syrian regime forces have used barrel bombs loaded with incendiary ammunitions against populated residential neighborhoods without taking any measures to reduce the damages to civilians and civilian buildings and facilities.
 
The report calls on the Security Council to ensure the serious implementation of its resolutions, and calls on the four permanent state members to apply pressure on the Russian government in order to cease its support for the Syrian regime. In addition, the report stresses that an arms embargo should be imposed on the Syrian regime and all those who supply the Syrian regime with finance and weapon should be prosecuted in light of the risk of these weapons being used in crimes and serious violations of human rights.
 
Also, the report calls on the Security Council to refer the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court and provide all possible facilitations in this regard. Additionally, the report says that the Security Council should start imposing security and peace and Syria and prosecute all those whose involvement in perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity should be prosecuted. The report calls on the European Union and the United States to support the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism that was established in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 71/248, adopted on December 21, 2016, establish local tribunals that enjoy a universal jurisdiction, and address the war crimes that were perpetrated in Syria.
 
The report says that steps should be taken on the national and regional levels to form alliances to support and protect the Syrian people from the daily killing. In addition, steps should be taken to put the principle of universal jurisdiction into practice with regard to these crimes before local tribunals. Moreover, the report says that pressure should be applied on the Syrian government in order to compel it to ratify Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and comply with its restrictions.
 
The report calls for the implementation of the “Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) norm especially after all political steps had been consumed through the agreement of the Arab League and then Kofi Annan’s plan and the Cessation of Hostilities statements and Astana Agreements that followed. Therefore, steps under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations should be taken, and the norm of the Responsibility to Protect, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly, should be implemented. The Security Council is still hindering the protection of civilians in Syria.
 

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On February 18, 2017, the Syrian regime initiated an extensive military campaign against the opposition-held parts of Damascus’s eastern neighborhoods (Mainly al Qaboun and Tishreen neighborhoods), in which “Pheel” rockets, mortar shells, and chemical weapons were used. The campaign’s goal was to drain even more of these neighborhoods’ capabilities by killing their residents, destroying their buildings, and shattering their resources in order to coerce these neighborhoods into agreeing to a settlement that would result in displacing the residents and making them IDPs in a scenario that we have seen time after time throughout the Syrian region. On Saturday, May 13, 2017, it was agreed that armed opposition fighters and their families are to flee to Idlib governorate. 4100 individuals fled in two groups on May 14 and May 15.
 
we noticed that Syrian regime forces incorporated an improvised mechanism to their indiscriminate weapon arsenal, which they have been using, as we noticed since early-April 2017, primarily in al Qaboun and Tishreen neighborhoods. These mechanisms came to be called by the local residents as “explosive hoses” which are:
 
Plastic hoses that are loaded with TNT or C-4, could be as long as 80m. These hoses are fired from military vehicles such as the Russian mine-clearing vehicle UR-77. The typical use of these hoses is to detonate mines, and they cause huge destruction, spanning areas of tens of meters. The Syrian regime uses these hoses to shell residential neighborhoods.
 

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SNHR issued a report that documented the government forces use of barrel bombs two years after UNSC resolution 2139 was issued.
The report stated that UNSC resolution 2139 that was issued on 22 February 2014 called for “an immediate cease all attacks against civilians” and explicitly expressed “its intent to take further steps in the case of non-compliance with the resolution.” However, through daily documentation concerning the use of barrel bombs used, SNHR found no difference before that the Security Council resolution was issued and after. Government forces continued to shell residents with barrel bombs; a clear violation and insult for the Security Council and a dictatorial triumph over democracy.
The report depicts the toll of barrel bombs used, the shelling outcomes and aftermath, in addition to the most significant facilities that were shelled with explosive barrel bombs.

The report also stated that the only conflict party who possesses this kind of weapons is the ruling regime; however its officials deny the use of these barrel bombs as weapons just like they deny all their other crimes. Additionally, the current government prohibits all different kinds of media outlets or independent international organizations. This report depicts the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian government only, regardless of the other conflict parties like armed opposition, extremist Islamic groups and Kurdish Self Management Forces) since they do not possess airpower.
According to the report, not less than 19947 barrel bombs were dropped by government helicopters on different Syrian governorates since the resolution was issued. Those barrel bombs killed 8136 civilians including 2274 children and 2036 women according to SNHR documentation team.

It stated that barrel bombs were first used on Monday 1 October, 2012 in Idlib – Silqean town where a helicopter dropped a barrel bomb on a two-floor residential building which collapsed completely. The international community was not familiar with that kind of weapon yet. Barrel bombs sometimes weigh quarter of ton and rely on the free fall principle. These barrels are random weapons and locally made, since it is less expensive, causes massive destruction, and causes a great loss of lives. 99% of the casualties are civilians, where the percentage of targeted women and children ranges between 12 and 35%.
The report concludes that the Syrian government has, beyond any doubt, violated Security Council resolution 2139 and used barrel bombs in a widespread and systematic manner. Furthermore, the Syrian government perpetrated the crime of murder in a widespread and systematic manner according to Article VII of The International Criminal Court Rome Stature. Additionally, it violated many principles of the international humanitarian law and perpetrated tens of crimes that can be classified openly as war crimes through its indiscriminate and proportionate bombing.

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Introduction
By daily observing and recording the violations after the beginning of the popular protests in March 2011, we found out that first significant use of barrel bombs by government forces (Military forces, security forces, local militias, and foreign Shiite militias) was on Monday 1 October, 2012 in Idlib – Silqean town where a helicopter dropped a barrel bomb on a two-floor residential building which collapsed completely and 32 civilians, including seven women and seven children, were killed in addition to 120 others who were injured as shrapnel scattered everywhere. It is worth noting that this might not be the first time barrel bombs were used but it was the first time it was used in such a notable manner. The international community was not familiar with that kind of weapon yet.
The same as with any new weapon, government forces cautiously waited for the international community’s respond as the Syrian government deems the international community’s silence or condemnation a red light to use and employ this weapon on a larger scale which was the case when it started using aerial weapon, poison gases, cluster munitions, and Scud missiles.

The Security Council waited a year and a half before adopting resolution 2139 on 22 February, 2014 which condemned the use of barrel bombs and mentioned it by name: “Demands that all parties immediately cease all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs” The Syrians welcomed the resolution because it expressed an intention to take further action in the events of incompliance.
The Syrian government, through its allies at the Security Council first and the other states’ failure to shoulder their legal and moral role, disregarded resolution 2139 the same way it disregarded resolution 2118, adopted on 27 September, 2013, resolution 2042 and 2043, adopted in April 2012. The Syrian government fully realizes that there are no serious consequences of its action where its forces are openly and proudly violating the Security Council resolutions and international laws (A pro-government politician said on TV that the Syrian government should use nuclear weapons to attack the areas outside its control). Our daily documentation of violations shows that there is no notable difference before 22 February, 2014 (resolution 2139) and after.

Fadel Abdulghani, head of SNHR, says:
“The world can’t exist without law, yes, government forces’ use of barrel bombs is a shameful act that is happening before the whole world’s eyes. The international community’s and the Security Council’s silence is even more despicable because the international community is supposed to represent the values of justice and human dignity. The Security Council should work on restoring peace and safety and the civilians who are living in the areas that are not being controlled by the Syrian government have the right to be protected by the international community”.

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Barrel bombs airstrikes have killed about a thousand Syrian citizens; 97% approximately of them are civilians. We believe thatthese numbers arereasonableconsidering the indiscriminate dropping of these barrel bombs from five thousands meter high. This happens on a daily basisdespite the UN Security Council Resolution 2139 which was adopted unanimously on Feb 22th to “immediately cease all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs”. We, in SNHR,affirm that nothing has changed after the resolution was adopted,this was the case always with similarprevious noncommittal Resolutions.This clearly indicates that there are guarantees from within the Security Council granted by the Syrian regime’s allies.

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After the excessive air strikes with explosive barrels against Aleppo by the government forces, that destroyed large sections of Aleppo’s neighborhoods and killed thousands of victims under absolute international silence especially on the Security Council part, whose phrases about Syria were very general in regard to using this kind of indiscriminate weapons that don’t achieve anything but destruction and killing without any particular and accurate military target;all this enticed the Syrian government to escalate its attacks of the explosive barrels and move to Daraa like what happened in Al-Muzereieb and Tsyl towns.It alsomoved to attack Darriya city in Damascus countryside. During the time in which we made this report we detected that no less than 330 bombs were used against Darriya which killed 29 victims including seven women and seven children. There were also 250 wounded.The notable low number of victims was because of the displacement from Darriy city where 175,000 have left the city while less than 8,000 stayed.
The number of explosive barrels used by the government forces has exceeded 5375 barrels that killed 6493 people, more than 97% of which were civilian.
Moreover, the explosive barrels caused the destruction of no less than 5840 building including schools, hospitals, Mosques, and churches as the explosive barrels have mainly targeted residential areas.
In Darriya city alone there were no less than 150 explosive barrels from 31 Dec, 2013 until 15 Jan, 2014. The armed opposition managed to binge down one of the helicoptersthat was used to launch the explosive barrels, consequently the air strikes ceased for 8 days until 22 Jan, 2014 before it resumed with a rate of 22 bombs per day in the last days of January.
SNHR contacted the field-activist Mohannad Abuzzain from Darriya and he talked to the SNHR about the conditions of the city during that time:
“The air strikes started on 31 Dec, 2013, the first barrel was on Martqla church in the middle of the city and was followed by another three barrels, the air strikes continued for ten days with a rate of 4-6 barrels per day. The residential areas in the south and the middle of city were the primary targets, during that time there was no clashes with the FSA, however the campaign was after the FSA advanced 1 Km on the borders of Dariyya, so it was out of vengeance; Subsequently, rebels managed to neutralize one helicopter so the shelling ceased for 8 days before it resumed worse than before”
“Dariyya has been under siege for more than 15 months were no one was allowed to enter or exit the city, the people’ only resort was the shelters and basement that became their permanent residence.Due to the continuous shelling the number of wounded during the first month amounted to more than 60 including women and children, in addition to a lot of people whom we had to extract from underneath the rubbles as they were suffering from several bruises, also the shelling targeted some of the rebels’ vital centers such as the police station, the media office, and the restaurant that was affiliated to them.However the residential areas were still the main target which contributed in increasing the numbers of woundedwomen and children”.
Although a unanimous resolution were adopted at the Security Council on 22 Feb, 2014 to stop immediately the indiscriminate use of weapons in residential areas, and referred specifically to the explosive barrels, nothing changed, even though the resolution stated that there will be necessary procedures in case of lack of commitment to the resolution.
Hosam, a media activist from Darriya city who works for SNHR, says:
“This ongoing campaign started with the end of the year on 31 Dec, 2013, the campaign was slow-paced at the beginning before it escalated gradually with the time. Air strikesare targeting mainly residential areas more than rebels areas as the field-hospital was targeted several times as well as the police station and central kitchen. Dariyya has become a weapon laboratory where the regime tests all of its weapons; nonetheless, the explosive barrels had the most destructive power, the buildings that have two floors were destroyed completely if it was hit by a barrel. The problem is the siege that prevented the civilians from leaving considering that the shelling was usually between 9 AM and 6 PM which is the time when people usually move around the city. The destruction increased significantly with the start of this year until the middle of February, the destroyed buildings were 50% of the total number of buildings, however the buildings that weren’t destroyed completely are not suitable for living from an engineering standpoint”.

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Introduction
Tafas city is located in southern Daraa governorate. The city administratively follows al Mzayreeb county, and has a strategically important location.
A URL showing the city location
 
This report draws upon the investigations conducted by SNHR team with activists and eyewitnesses from Daraa governorate. The report contains two accounts that have been documented and included in the report, in addition to the news, pictures, and videos that we received from cooperating activists. All activists’ and eyewitnesses’ names were changed as per their request.
 
For more information on SNHR methodology in documenting victims, please see the following URL
 
Details
Syrian government helicopters targeted Tafas city on February 12, 2014, with a barrel bombs, killing 13 individuals, including eight individuals from the same family.
Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of SNHR, says: “We found out, in the course of preparing researches and reports on use of barrel bombs by government forces, that they don’t serve any particular military purpose, and, rather, are only used to deliberately punish civilians, as they have also widely damaged buildings and the infrastructure as well.”
SNHR spoke to Mr. Abu Asim, an activist from Tafas city, who told SNHR:
“Around 9:10 AM, helicopters starting flying in the city sky before dropping a barrel bomb in the middle of the heavily-populated residential neighborhoods which house a large number of IDPs.”
“The martyrs were mostly children and women, and eight of them were from the same family. There weren’t many wounded, as most of them died because of the shrapnel these barrel bombs contain. Most of the remaining wounded had their limbs amputated.”
 
Abu Hamza, an activist from Tafas city who was contacted by SNHR, told SNHR about the bombing:
“Before the bombing, helicopters were soaring above the city. About 9:00, we heard a huge explosion. I went up to the roof to locate the explosion location. It was a barrel bomb dropped by the helicopter that targeted a residential neighborhood in the middle of the city. This is a heavily populated neighborhood, especially with residents from Ataman and Nawa displacing here after those two cities were liberated.”
“I headed for the site to take pictures. Blood was covering a residential building, and dead bodies were buried under rubbles. People started to pull out the dead bodies. Most of them were children, and two of them were headless. ”
“Most of the martyrs were from one family, al Zou’bi family. We could only find the head skin, which was covered in white hair, of one of the victims, who was a member of the family.”
 

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Aleppo city was, over the past few months, a subject of a heavy barrel bombs shelling especially on Aleppo and its countryside.These air strikes were before and during Geneva 2 conference where the deputy foreign minister Faisal Al-Meqdad stated that the regime is using barrel bombs in order to protect civilians, despite the fact that these strikes were indiscriminate on the residential areas and the most crowded places, which led to huge numbers of casualties and wounded in a few weeks, in addition to destroying a large section of Aleppo city and displacing tens of thousands of the residents to the Turkish borders. Furthermore, the hospitals and medical staffs were overwhelmed and incapable of meeting these arising and horrible needs to contain the damage in what looks like a plan to forcibly evacuate the city of its residents, causing damage to the city facilities as much as possible, and killing as many victims as possible,especially among the civilians. These air strikes are just a continuation of this humanitarian tragedy that the Syrian people are experiencing, not to mention that it killed the possibility of a political solution and contributed even more in confirming the path of violence as a sustainable reality.
 
This report looks on the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian regime’s warplanes against Aleppo and its countryside from 28/1/2014 until 14/2/2014, documents the magnitude of destruction and casualtiesand evaluates the percentage of the civilians, women, and rebels of those victims.
 
The Syrian regime’s airplanes has dropped no less than 508 barrel bombs that contain explosive substances that killed more than 843 people including only six rebels and 837 civilians in 18 days.This suggests that 99% of the victims were civilians. Also these air strikes caused 326 injuries and more than 175000 left Aleppo due to the destruction of their houses and their fear of getting killed every day.
 
After three months of air strikes in addition to the attacks in the past years, quarter of Aleppo was severely destroyed or damaged (Please see several reports by the SNHR about the destruction of Aleppo that was caused by missiles and barrel bombs).
 
Among the civilians there were 221 children and 119 women (26% children and 14% women, all-together children and women represented 40% of the total victims) who got killed by the air strikes and barrel bombs against several neighborhoods in Aleppo and its countryside in 18 days according to what the SNHR documented from 28/1/2014 until 14/2/2014.
 
There were four days with more than 90 victims which were the bloodiest given the substantial increase in the casualties numbers (Saturday 1/2/2014, Sunday 2/2/2014, Saturday 8/2/2014, and Sunday 9/2/2014).
 

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Introduction:
Al Bab city is a strategic area and a linked point between Aleppo, Manbej and the two crossing points of Turkey (Al Ra’e and Bab Al Salama), and between Khanaser and Al Sfareh, in addition to Tadef and Qabasein.
 
Tadef town is affiliated to to Al Bab city in Aleppo governorate in the eastern side.
 
Details
Al Bab city and the neighboring Tadef town were targeted in a bombardment using barrel bombs by helicopter affiliated to Syrian government forces as three barrel bombs were dropped on civilian residential areas, while the investigation couldn’t find any military points or military vehicles in these areas.
At the same time with the bombardment, clashes intensified at the entrance of Al Bab city and Tadef town between armed opposition elements and ISIS which obstructed the aiding of the injured and increased their suffering.
 
The report methodology relays on the investigation carried out by SNHR’s team in Aleppo city with the residents and activists on Al Bab city and Tadef town. The report contains three accounts of eyewitnesses in addition to news and pictures sent by cooperating activists from the city.
 

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