Barrel Bombs
The sectarian civil war in Iraq continues to inspire plenty of comment in the press and media, both home and abroad, while the murderous attacks on innocent civilians by the Assad regime in Syria is broadly ignored.
I haven't seen a single protest in the 'Arab street', for example, which was quick to rise up in furious anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad yet the same religious leaders have virtually nothing to say about the situation in Syria.
Assad barrel bombs slaughter refugees asleep in their tents
Another barrel bomb was dropped earlier in the Aleppo district of al-Sukari Hosam Katan/Reuters
By Sara Elizabeth Williams in Ramatha, Jordan, and Tom Coghlan - The Times
Syrian helicopters yesterday dropped barrel bombs on a tented refugee camp close to the Jordanian border, killing and injuring dozens of people and drawing condemnation from Western aid agencies.
The attack near the village of Sharja, which is 2 kilometres inside Syria in Dera’a Province, killed at least 20 people according to local witnesses.
The overnight strike saw several high explosive barrel bombs dropped by helicopters.
“Women were wailing hysterically as they saw their dead children lying on the floor,” said Abu Mohammad al-Hourani, a farmer in the village who claimed he had helped remove bodies.
“We understand that a camp for people displaced by war was attacked, and MSF condemns the use of disproportionate force and any violence against civilian populations,” said Paul Foreman, the head of Medecins Sans Frontiere’s operations in Jordan after several of the injured reached an MSF facility across the border.
Photos and videos purporting to show the aftermath of the attack were posted to social media. They showed the bodies of women and children with devastating injuries. Several small children appeared to have had limbs crushed or severed — catastrophic blast injuries often associated with the use of barrel bombs.
In the past few months, hundreds of barrel bombs have killed thousands of people in Aleppo alone. Barrel bombs — dropped from helicopters by the Assad regime — are metal containers packed with explosives and shrapnel. They have been condemned by the international community because of the bombing of civilian areas.
Local officials said that the Sharja camp housed 300 internally displaced families in a disused school and nearby tents — a description backed by video footage. The camp is run by the Free Syrian Army and FSA fighters were among the casualties. Four casualties, including two children, were taken over the border to an MSF facility at Ramtha Government Hospital, about 3 kilometres south of the border. One was later transferred to another Jordan hospital for neurosurgery.
Over the past 10 months, Jordanian authorities have clamped down on the flow of Syrian refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom have already crossed the border. The Jordanian military closely guards the border in the more populated west, and only allows a small trickle to cross daily through one crossing point in the country’s far east, near the Iraqi border.
Even as the border has become almost impassable, the number of displaced people in southern Syria has mushroomed.
Unable to leave the country but desperate to escape the violence, many have sought shelter in camps adjacent to the border, such as the one attacked yesterday.
More than 160,000 people have been killed to date in Syria’s devastating three-year civil war.
Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reported yesterday that it had gathered evidence to support claims by rebels that the Syrian government is continuing to use improvised chemical weapons — notably chlorine.
Rebels have alleged that more than a dozen small-scale chemical attacks using gas have been perpetrated this year.
“The information that was available to the fact-finding mission lends credence to the view that toxic chemicals —most likely pulmonary irritating agents, such as chlorine — have been used in Syria,” the group said.
Syrian helicopters yesterday dropped barrel bombs on a tented refugee camp close to the Jordanian border, killing and injuring dozens of people and drawing condemnation from Western aid agencies.
The attack near the village of Sharja, which is 2 kilometres inside Syria in Dera’a Province, killed at least 20 people according to local witnesses.
The overnight strike saw several high explosive barrel bombs dropped by helicopters.
“Women were wailing hysterically as they saw their dead children lying on the floor,” said Abu Mohammad al-Hourani, a farmer in the village who claimed he had helped remove bodies.
“We understand that a camp for people displaced by war was attacked, and MSF condemns the use of disproportionate force and any violence against civilian populations,” said Paul Foreman, the head of Medecins Sans Frontiere’s operations in Jordan after several of the injured reached an MSF facility across the border.
Photos and videos purporting to show the aftermath of the attack were posted to social media. They showed the bodies of women and children with devastating injuries. Several small children appeared to have had limbs crushed or severed — catastrophic blast injuries often associated with the use of barrel bombs.
In the past few months, hundreds of barrel bombs have killed thousands of people in Aleppo alone. Barrel bombs — dropped from helicopters by the Assad regime — are metal containers packed with explosives and shrapnel. They have been condemned by the international community because of the bombing of civilian areas.
Local officials said that the Sharja camp housed 300 internally displaced families in a disused school and nearby tents — a description backed by video footage. The camp is run by the Free Syrian Army and FSA fighters were among the casualties. Four casualties, including two children, were taken over the border to an MSF facility at Ramtha Government Hospital, about 3 kilometres south of the border. One was later transferred to another Jordan hospital for neurosurgery.
Over the past 10 months, Jordanian authorities have clamped down on the flow of Syrian refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom have already crossed the border. The Jordanian military closely guards the border in the more populated west, and only allows a small trickle to cross daily through one crossing point in the country’s far east, near the Iraqi border.
Even as the border has become almost impassable, the number of displaced people in southern Syria has mushroomed.
Unable to leave the country but desperate to escape the violence, many have sought shelter in camps adjacent to the border, such as the one attacked yesterday.
More than 160,000 people have been killed to date in Syria’s devastating three-year civil war.
Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reported yesterday that it had gathered evidence to support claims by rebels that the Syrian government is continuing to use improvised chemical weapons — notably chlorine.
Rebels have alleged that more than a dozen small-scale chemical attacks using gas have been perpetrated this year.
“The information that was available to the fact-finding mission lends credence to the view that toxic chemicals —most likely pulmonary irritating agents, such as chlorine — have been used in Syria,” the group said.
Over a Barrel (2 January 2014)
Roger Boyes writing in the Times the other day makes a cogent case for the West to create a 'no-fly' zone Syria to prevent the ongoing slaughter witnessed in recent weeks through the use of barrel bombs which are hurled indiscriminately from President Assad's helicopters.
Now this would not achieve peace nor end of the killing, but I agree with Roger Boyes that it would help create better conditions for a negotiated settlement between the warring parties - because there seems little doubt that President Assad and his allies have been emboldened by the reluctance of the West to intervene in his murderous civil war, which started out as a peaceful protest of course.
Yet there is a problem within Islam that in certain Muslim countries which prevents Sunni and Shia Muslims from living alongside each other, peacefully as respectful neighbours and friends.
While in western democracies you would struggle hard to find someone who would know the difference between a Sunni or Shia Muslim or why these two branches of the same religion often behave so murderously towards each other - in fact in the west there is a general, secular level of tolerance towards beliefs of all kinds that must seem incredible to Islamic theocracies and monarchies.
Yet there is a problem within Islam that in certain Muslim countries which prevents Sunni and Shia Muslims from living alongside each other, peacefully as respectful neighbours and friends.
While in western democracies you would struggle hard to find someone who would know the difference between a Sunni or Shia Muslim or why these two branches of the same religion often behave so murderously towards each other - in fact in the west there is a general, secular level of tolerance towards beliefs of all kinds that must seem incredible to Islamic theocracies and monarchies.
So, whatever the problems facing western democracies I think it's fair to say that we can teach the world a thing or two about living together peacefully - under the kind of enduring political settlement which respects other people's beliefs along with their civil and human rights.
Aleppo is of course the city where the British doctor, Dr Abbas Khan, travelled to in an effort to help the victims of these bombings - only to lose his life in a Syrian prison while under the custody of the murderous Assad regime.
Aleppo is of course the city where the British doctor, Dr Abbas Khan, travelled to in an effort to help the victims of these bombings - only to lose his life in a Syrian prison while under the custody of the murderous Assad regime.
By Roger Boyes
Assad and Russia are playing the West for fools. A no-fly zone would end the slaughter of Syria’s innocent
Packed with explosives, nails and chunks of jagged steel, barrel bombs are Bashar Assad’s latest challenge to Western complacency. First, though, they are a challenge to the women and children who have been ripped apart by these DIY bombs; canisters rolled out of Russian-made military helicopters on to the market places of Aleppo province. More than 500 people have been slaughtered in this way since mid-December.
Day by day it is becoming clear that Russia and the Assad regime are playing us for fools. The international agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons is providing cover for continuing a mad and vicious war that has turned one of the cradles of Arab civilisation into a terrible humanitarian crisis. When the war eventually staggers to an end whatever is left of Syria will be, as Bosnia was, a giant cemetery.
Chemical disarmament, a decision foisted on Assad by a suddenly co-operative Kremlin, seemed to do everyone a favour. Certainly it saved faces in Britain and the US, where there was no enthusiasm for a military strike against another Middle Eastern state. The price of this Russian help: extending the political life of Assad and upgrading Moscow’s influence in the region.
The true price, though, is measured in more than degrees of diplomatic disadvantage. It is being paid in blood as the regime feels licensed to use every non-chemical weapon at its disposal to gain ground ahead of peace negotiations on January 22. The barrel bombs are cocking a snook at the White House and Downing Street. It is time to think again about the limited use of force in the name of saving life.
It is easy to put a mildly positive spin on 2013 and forget the suffering on the ground. The Middle East started the year with an imploding Syria and a crazed Iranian leader chasing nuclear breakout. Now Assad is in some kind of international harness (albeit with the reins held by Vladimir Putin) and Iran is at least talking to the West.
The fact is, however, that nothing has been solved, least of all in Syria. Assad is already stringing the West along on the disarmament process, missing a deadline on New Year’s Eve for the next stage in the disposal of nerve gas stocks. And the Geneva talks (actually being staged in Montreux; the Geneva hotels having been booked out for a watch congress) will not lead to a quick ceasefire.
After all, why should Assad surrender? During the 33 months of insurgency he has rarely seemed so secure. Russian interest in some form of regime survival is now explicit. In a vote of confidence, it has just signed a 25-year oil and gas exploration deal with the Syrian Government.
On the military front, Assad is holding the line in Damascus and other strategic positions. The army is tired but still getting support from Iran and from Hezbollah units. His desperate argument — that the only alternative to him is jihadist chaos — has been bought by many Western politicians.
It is time to change tack. For too long we have allowed ourselves to play according to the rules set by Mr Putin and Assad. We must focus less on the merits and demerits of Assad’s political survival and more on the physical survival of the Syrian people. The death toll now exceeds 120,000. By most counts that is worse than the killing fields of the Bosnian war. There are more than two million Syrian refugees outside the country, many of them housed in tents or draughty barracks in what is shaping up to be one of the region’s coldest winter for years. That poses a political problem — it could soon destabilise host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon — and it is a huge administrative task. It is, however, a relatively familiar one for aid agencies and governments.
More complex is the swelling number of displaced people within Syria itself, fleeing from the fighting and the food shortages in one town to take shelter in another. The UN estimates that 9.3 million Syrians need urgent help. Some aid is getting through. Some is being intercepted by jihadists. A great deal is held up by the Syrian Government itself. It denies access to communities claiming that the passage there is too dangerous — but in fact makes the situation more dangerous with its mortar and aerial bombardments. Assad is creating a problem, refusing to help with its solution and intimidating those who try to do something in his stead. Doctors and nurses are detained, even tortured. Even polio vaccines are not getting through.
We must now push for a robust protection of aid convoys. Some improvement in the lot of ordinary civilians could be achieved by diplomatic means if Russia simply pulled its weight. It has set itself up as a constructive partner on Syria, and it should make good. For a start it can stop servicing the helicopters that are hurling barrel bombs on to bread queues. It can work within the UN Security Council to find ways of bringing international aid to the people that need it. That’s not happening.
Behind Russian stubbornness on aid has been its conviction that the West wants UN authority for a no-fly zone as a first stage towards toppling a dictator. Syria, however, is not Libya. The intervention in Libya was partly justified by the need to head off an impending massacre by Gaddafi’s forces.
In Syria, the massacres have been happening for almost three years; people are dying like flies. Nor does the Russian argument against violating sovereignty hold much water. Assad can barely control his country’s supposedly sovereign borders. The humanitarian case for a no-fly zone, once dismissed as too risky and difficult to implement, is now compelling. The use of barrel bombs makes the point — command of the skies over Syria will save many, many lives.
The family of British doctor, Dr Abbas Khan, blame the murderous Syrian regime for his untimely death which I can well understand because while people do sometimes die in custody - it is unusual for such a terrible thing to happen on the verge of a person's release.
Dr Abbas Khan was not a combatant - the 32-year old orthopaedic surgeon went to Syria to help save not take lives, but he was captured last year in the city of Aleppo in November 2012 having travelled via Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings.
The Syrian authorities say Dr Abbas took his own life - yet strangely he wrote to his family back in the UK only recently to say he was hoping to return home for Christmas to be reunited with his wife and two young children.
Not the kind of behaviour you would expect from a suicidal prisoner - yet on 17 December the Syrian Government announced that Dr Abbas had died suddenly and unexpectedly in their custody.
Sometimes you don't need hard evidence to realise that certain people are lying through their teeth.
Assad and Russia are playing the West for fools. A no-fly zone would end the slaughter of Syria’s innocent
Packed with explosives, nails and chunks of jagged steel, barrel bombs are Bashar Assad’s latest challenge to Western complacency. First, though, they are a challenge to the women and children who have been ripped apart by these DIY bombs; canisters rolled out of Russian-made military helicopters on to the market places of Aleppo province. More than 500 people have been slaughtered in this way since mid-December.
Day by day it is becoming clear that Russia and the Assad regime are playing us for fools. The international agreement to strip Syria of its chemical weapons is providing cover for continuing a mad and vicious war that has turned one of the cradles of Arab civilisation into a terrible humanitarian crisis. When the war eventually staggers to an end whatever is left of Syria will be, as Bosnia was, a giant cemetery.
Chemical disarmament, a decision foisted on Assad by a suddenly co-operative Kremlin, seemed to do everyone a favour. Certainly it saved faces in Britain and the US, where there was no enthusiasm for a military strike against another Middle Eastern state. The price of this Russian help: extending the political life of Assad and upgrading Moscow’s influence in the region.
The true price, though, is measured in more than degrees of diplomatic disadvantage. It is being paid in blood as the regime feels licensed to use every non-chemical weapon at its disposal to gain ground ahead of peace negotiations on January 22. The barrel bombs are cocking a snook at the White House and Downing Street. It is time to think again about the limited use of force in the name of saving life.
It is easy to put a mildly positive spin on 2013 and forget the suffering on the ground. The Middle East started the year with an imploding Syria and a crazed Iranian leader chasing nuclear breakout. Now Assad is in some kind of international harness (albeit with the reins held by Vladimir Putin) and Iran is at least talking to the West.
The fact is, however, that nothing has been solved, least of all in Syria. Assad is already stringing the West along on the disarmament process, missing a deadline on New Year’s Eve for the next stage in the disposal of nerve gas stocks. And the Geneva talks (actually being staged in Montreux; the Geneva hotels having been booked out for a watch congress) will not lead to a quick ceasefire.
After all, why should Assad surrender? During the 33 months of insurgency he has rarely seemed so secure. Russian interest in some form of regime survival is now explicit. In a vote of confidence, it has just signed a 25-year oil and gas exploration deal with the Syrian Government.
On the military front, Assad is holding the line in Damascus and other strategic positions. The army is tired but still getting support from Iran and from Hezbollah units. His desperate argument — that the only alternative to him is jihadist chaos — has been bought by many Western politicians.
It is time to change tack. For too long we have allowed ourselves to play according to the rules set by Mr Putin and Assad. We must focus less on the merits and demerits of Assad’s political survival and more on the physical survival of the Syrian people. The death toll now exceeds 120,000. By most counts that is worse than the killing fields of the Bosnian war. There are more than two million Syrian refugees outside the country, many of them housed in tents or draughty barracks in what is shaping up to be one of the region’s coldest winter for years. That poses a political problem — it could soon destabilise host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon — and it is a huge administrative task. It is, however, a relatively familiar one for aid agencies and governments.
More complex is the swelling number of displaced people within Syria itself, fleeing from the fighting and the food shortages in one town to take shelter in another. The UN estimates that 9.3 million Syrians need urgent help. Some aid is getting through. Some is being intercepted by jihadists. A great deal is held up by the Syrian Government itself. It denies access to communities claiming that the passage there is too dangerous — but in fact makes the situation more dangerous with its mortar and aerial bombardments. Assad is creating a problem, refusing to help with its solution and intimidating those who try to do something in his stead. Doctors and nurses are detained, even tortured. Even polio vaccines are not getting through.
We must now push for a robust protection of aid convoys. Some improvement in the lot of ordinary civilians could be achieved by diplomatic means if Russia simply pulled its weight. It has set itself up as a constructive partner on Syria, and it should make good. For a start it can stop servicing the helicopters that are hurling barrel bombs on to bread queues. It can work within the UN Security Council to find ways of bringing international aid to the people that need it. That’s not happening.
Behind Russian stubbornness on aid has been its conviction that the West wants UN authority for a no-fly zone as a first stage towards toppling a dictator. Syria, however, is not Libya. The intervention in Libya was partly justified by the need to head off an impending massacre by Gaddafi’s forces.
In Syria, the massacres have been happening for almost three years; people are dying like flies. Nor does the Russian argument against violating sovereignty hold much water. Assad can barely control his country’s supposedly sovereign borders. The humanitarian case for a no-fly zone, once dismissed as too risky and difficult to implement, is now compelling. The use of barrel bombs makes the point — command of the skies over Syria will save many, many lives.
Unbelievable (31 December 2013)
The family of British doctor, Dr Abbas Khan, blame the murderous Syrian regime for his untimely death which I can well understand because while people do sometimes die in custody - it is unusual for such a terrible thing to happen on the verge of a person's release.
Dr Abbas Khan was not a combatant - the 32-year old orthopaedic surgeon went to Syria to help save not take lives, but he was captured last year in the city of Aleppo in November 2012 having travelled via Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings.
The Syrian authorities say Dr Abbas took his own life - yet strangely he wrote to his family back in the UK only recently to say he was hoping to return home for Christmas to be reunited with his wife and two young children.
Not the kind of behaviour you would expect from a suicidal prisoner - yet on 17 December the Syrian Government announced that Dr Abbas had died suddenly and unexpectedly in their custody.
Sometimes you don't need hard evidence to realise that certain people are lying through their teeth.
