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NY Times Op-Ed, Mar. 11 2015
The Carnage of Barrel Bombs in Syria
By ABDEL
ALEPPO, Syria — MARWAN was on the operating table when the lights
blinked and fizzled out. I turned on the headlamp I wear for situations
like these, but it flickered, indicating low batteries. The nurse to my
left pulled her cellphone from her pocket and turned it on, creating the
only light in the pitch-black basement. Others in the room followed suit
with their phones, shining the devices at the wound and producing just
enough light to allow me to finish repairing the little boy’s broken body.
Marwan had arrived at my field hospital, which was built underground to
avoid bombardment, after losing his mother, sister and both of his legs
in a barrel bomb attack late last year. In recovery after the surgery,
he asked me in a timid voice, “Will I be able to go to school anymore?”
In another incident, two weeks later, we worked hard to stabilize a man
with a severe leg fracture. We loaded him and two other patients into an
ambulance to take them on the 90-minute journey to the Turkish border,
where they could receive better care in safer conditions.
Just as they headed out, another barrel bomb struck, landing next to the
ambulance. The paramedic was the only survivor.
After four years of war in Syria, stories like this are all too common.
I am a surgeon operating in Aleppo, a city in the northwest still
partially held by the armed opposition — though under increasing
pressure from Syrian government forces. I have witnessed countless
attacks like these and the toll they continue to take on my patients, my
city and my country, which lies in ruins.
The United Nations estimates that some 220,000 of my fellow Syrians have
died during this conflict. I believe the true number of fatalities could
be twice as high. After a barrel-bomb strike, an accurate casualty count
is almost impossible; many bodies are buried under rubble and cannot be
recovered.
The United Nations’ figure also does not account for the hundreds of
thousands of Syrians who have been “disappeared.” Some may be in jail,
but many, we expect, have been killed. The government told us that a
relative of mine, a pharmacist, was dead; but no body has been returned
to his family.
While the world’s attention is focused on the horrors perpetrated by the
Islamic State in other parts of my country, the daily terror of barrel
bombs is our gravest threat. The denials of President Bashar al-Assad
about the use of these weapons ring hollow, for we are living through a
hurricane of barrel bombs dropped by his regime.
These are old oil barrels, filled with up to a ton of explosives, nails,
gasoline and even chlorine or other chemical agents. Dropped from a high
altitude over heavily populated areas, they are crude, ruthless and
indiscriminate.
A favorite regime tactic is to drop several in sequence in order to kill
or maim the ordinary Syrians who have come to help the victims of the
first attack. The lucky ones, like me, who have so far avoided death are
subjected to the daily terror and crippling fear of the next
helicopter-borne barrage of horror.
Many of my colleagues have not been so lucky. The organization
Physicians for Human Rights has documented some 233 attacks on medical
facilities and more than 600 health professionals killed (97 percent of
whom died, they estimate, in government-led attacks).
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
jlitman 47 minutes ago
Unfortunately for the citizens of Aleppo & elsewhere in Syria, should
not look to the U.S. for support in ending the horror of the civil war...
Judyw 47 minutes ago
Lets stay out of something for a change. This is not our fight. We
should not get involved. The only group we should be fighting in the...
thanuat 47 minutes ago
This doctor's story reflects the absolute moral bankruptcy of the
international community and its pathetic dysfunctional avatar, the United...
SEE ALL COMMENTS WRITE A COMMENT
Human Rights Watch has documented more than 1,000 barrel-bomb impact
sites in Aleppo in the year since the Security Council passed Resolution
2139, which called for an end to their use in populated areas. The
Security Council, including the United States, promised “further steps”
if this didn’t happen.
And yet the helicopters come. The chop-chop-chop of their blades causes
panic every time. And the barrel bombs continue to rain down, on our
homes, on our schools and on our hospitals, often at a rate as high as
50 per day.
Why do I stay? Because it would be strange not to: This is my city.
People are being killed every day. It is my duty.
The government has recently made advances into the opposition-held areas
around Aleppo, raising the specter of a siege that would have
devastating consequences. Our access to the little humanitarian and
medical assistance that does trickle in would be cut off. A renewed
government assault on the city would put scores more Marwans on my
operating table, but prevent us from receiving the medical equipment and
supplies we need to save their lives.
I am a doctor and a humanitarian, not a military man: It is not for me
to say how the international community should protect civilians. I only
know that the bombing must be stopped by all means necessary, that the
carnage must end, that civilians need a protected zone where they feel
safe to go about their daily lives. The Syrian government should be held
accountable for the war crimes it commits every day by using barrel
bombs to kill civilians and target hospitals and schools.
The United States and the international community must look beyond
addressing the Islamic State alone, or simply providing humanitarian
assistance. While we work toward a political resolution of the conflict,
civilians need protection now — and that requires serious American
leadership.
Abdel is a Syrian doctor. His full name is being withheld to protect his
safety.
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