The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the Assad regime forces dropped over 6,243 barrel bombs on rebel-held areas across Syria in 2017.
In a report released on Sunday, the Network said that the barrel bomb attacks killed 130 civilians, including 55 children and 32 women. It noted that Assad regime helicopters dropped 312 barrel bombs on rebel-held areas during the month of December 2017 alone.
According to the report, the province of Dara’a was ranked first in terms of the number of victims of barrel bomb attacks, with 43 civilians killed in the province in 2017, followed by the provinces of Hama, Aleppo, Idlib, Rural Damascus, Deir Ezzor, Homs and Raqqa. It indicated that 99% of the victims were civilians, with women and children accounting for 35% of the total number of victims.
According to the report, the barrel bomb attacks targeted 22 residential areas, including seven mosques, five medical centers, a bakery, a service center, and an IDPs camp.
The Network noted that the first time Assad regime used barrel bombs was in an attack on the town of Salqeen in rural Idlib in early October 2012.
An earlier report by the monitoring group said that the Assad regime dropped no fewer than 12,958 barrel bombs on rebel-held areas across Syria in 2016, the majority of which hit the provinces of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Dara’a and Homs.
The Network called on the UN Security Council to enforce the resolutions it passed on Syria, calling on the international community to stop supplying the Assad regime with weapons. It stressed that the Assad regime is committing crimes against humanity through the systematic use of barrel bombs in populated areas. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
