What makes Syria’s ‘barrel bombs’ so scary

What makes Syria’s ‘barrel bombs’ so scary.

In his comment on the use of the term “Barrel Bombs,” Eliot Higgins, AKA Brown Moses, says via Twitter: “It’s like calling it a ‘barrel bomb’ makes it some special extra powerful bomb, when it’s basically a piece of crap.” My reply, also via Twitter was: This “piece of crap” has killed 87 children in one week, who gives a damn how crude they are? I have no doubt where Eliot’s sympathies lie, but sometimes experts lose sight of what’s really at stake. It’s the on-the-ground activists who first coined the term Barrel Bomb, and its use is causing terror, mass dislocation and mayhem all over rebel-held areas. This crude device has proven quite effective in bringing down buildings on top of their inhabitants killing hundreds, including scores of children. Its use shows how determined Assad and his backers, domestic and foreign, are in seeing their genocidal venture through.