A/HRC/25/65 Annex VI [English only] Use of barrel bombs 1. Barrel bombs, also called explosive barrels, are makeshift explosive devices increasingly employed by the Syrian Air Force against opposition strongholds in Syria. 2. The use of barrel-bombs by Government forces was first documented in August 2012 in Homs city and Al-Qusayr in Homs governorate. In September 2012, army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on opposition-controlled neighbourhoods of Aleppo city. Since then, they have increasingly formed part of the arsenal of Government forces, with devastating consequences for civilians and civilian objects. 3. Cheaper than conventional munitions and deliverable by transport helicopters, they are made from simple containers packed with explosives, scrap metal, and in many cases additional incendiary material. Locally made in different shapes, sizes and composition, they lack exact technical specifications available with conventional projectiles, in terms of accuracy and lethality. The enhanced anti-aircraft capabilities of non-State armed groups have forced Government helicopters to fly at higher altitudes, further reducing their accuracy. 4. The use of barrel bombs, in this manner, is indiscriminate. In areas where armed group fighters were present, Government forces treated clearly separate and distinct military objectives located in densely populated areas with high concentrations of civilians, as a single military objective. The use of barrel bombs in this context amounts to ‘area bombardment’, prohibited under international humanitarian law. Such bombardments spread of terror among the civilian population. Some barrel bombs are constructed as rudimentary incendiary weapons, causing superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. 5. Since 15 July 2013, barrel-bombs have been dropped on civilian-inhabited areas in Idlib, Hama, Al-Raqqa, Aleppo, Dara’a and Damascus governorates. Aleppo city and Daraya in Damascus countryside suffered intense and highly lethal attacks with barrelbombs between November 2013 and January 2014. 6. Civilians are killed in the initial blast, in the shrapnel that results and from the collapse of buildings in and around the impact site. Video footage of barrel bomb explosions and their aftermath show the loss of limbs and deep cuts as a result of shrapnel injuries. The impact of the Government’s campaign of barrel-bombing of civilian-inhabited areas extends beyond mass civilian casualties. 7. The terror that the Government’s barrel-bombing campaigns generate should not be underestimated. Barrel-bombs, particularly when dropped from high altitudes, cannot be properly targeted. Nor is it likely that anyone at the impact site would survive the initial blast. The Government does not provide early warning of attacks and there is little chance of being able to move from the area once a barrel bomb is released from a helicopter overhead. Victims of barrel bombs emphasized the extreme fear and mental suffering they felt as they came under attack. Survivors and witnesses consistently described that as a result of the barrel bombing campaign, much of the civilian population lived in a state of terror. 50