U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power sharply condemned the Syrian regime’s ongoing indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including barrel bombings.
“The Assad regime has apparently grown reliant on the repugnant use of barrel bombs as an instrument of terror against innocent Syrian civilians,” Power said in a written statement.
“Earlier this week, the regime also reportedly bombed a vegetable market in Idlib, killing and maiming scores of people, including women and children.”
Power went on: “The regime’s use of barrel bombs is widely and vigilantly documented by independent sources and in open source media. Heartbreaking pictures of dead children, maimed bodies, destroyed schools and markets have proliferated in the past month. Yet Bashar al Assad continues to lie blatantly to the media and his own people, feigning ignorance about his forces’ use of what appears to have become their weapon of choice.”
Power said the regime’s use of barrel bombs had been widely documented by independent sources and media, adding that the regime forces had dropped more than 2,000 barrel bombs across the country since the first week of July.
“It is long past time for the international community to come together to end the deplorable use of barrel bombs and all other forms of attacks against civilians in Syria,” she added
Power called for action to end the use of a type of improvised explosive that has particularly been targeted at the Damascus suburb of Darayya and the southwest region of Zabadani, near the Lebanon border.
The UN Security Council is discussing proposals for a resolution on barrel bombs that would increase the pressure on the Assad regime even though it adopted a resolution in February last year demanding an end to the attacks.
Human rights group say barrel bombs are the leading killer in the war, now in its fifth year, with more than 240,000 people dead.
Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition Salem al-Meslet strongly condemns these ongoing massacres committed by the Assad regime across Syria, pointing out that this criminal escalation is a clear message to the international community that the Assad regime cannot be a partner but must be tried as a war criminal. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
