SYRIA NEWS

ASSAD TELLS BBC “THERE ARE NO BARREL BOMBS” – 1470 KILLED OR WOUNDED IN FEBRUARY ALONE:

TIMELINE – 11th FEBRUARY 2015 14.03 GMT:

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In an interview with BBC TV News, President Bashar Assad, completely contradicting all available evidence, has said that his army “does not use barrel-bombs”.

Douma, Damascus After Barrel Bomb Attack 09.02.15

Sickeningly, despite some tough questioning from the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, he also tried to turn the accusation into a joke.

“We don’t have barrels. Again, it’s like talking about cooking pots. So, we don’t have cooking pots.

We only have, like any regular army, we have bombs, we have missiles, we have bullets, and etc”.

He also dismissed a reports by Human Rights Watch about the regime’s repeated use of barrel-bombs as “a childish story”.

This Syrian helicopter aircrew is using one of the first crude #NotBarrelBombs, back in 2012 and thousands have been dropped since, here:

On a similar line of questioning on the use of chlorine gas, when asked to confirm his army was not using it, he said, “No, definitely not”.

Assad also claims that, while there is no direct co-ordination, his military get information about attacks on the Islamic State through “a third party”, presumed to be Iraq.

Bowen: “And is that a continuing dialogue that you have through third parties?”

President Assad: “There’s no dialogue. There’s, let’s say, information. But not dialogue”.

Bowen: “They tell you things?” President Assad: “Something like this”. Bowen: “Do you tell them things?” President Assad: “No”.

Despite thorough and persistent questioning in the interview, Assad is tricky, manipulative and evasive. As one Twitter user asked, “Is there a more coldly mendacious ruler in the world than Bashar?”

Syria’s White Helmet Civil Defence Rescue Civilians After #NotBarrelBombs Attacks

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented 1009 air raids carried out by Assad’s helicopters and jets since the beginning of February in 12 out of Syria’s 14 provinces.

Not only has Assad upped the number of attacks in recent months, but cynically taken advantage of the world’s attention on the historic battle by the Kurds to defend Kobane.

According to SOHR the helicopters have dropped 537 barrel-bombs in February, killing 270 civilians including 48 women and 49 children. Another 1200 have been injured, some of them critically.

This is the BBC Syria news interview.

Or, if you can stomach it (“We are defending civilians and making dialogue”), the full transcript is on the Syrian state media site, SANA, HERE:

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One of Assad’s #NotBarrelBombs Full of Explosive and Shrapnel

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