An international rights group yesterday called for the UN Security Council to block the flow of weapons to Syria’s regime, which it said was launching indiscriminate attacks with “barrel bombs.”
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had documented 85 aerial attacks by the regime against opposition areas in the northern province of Aleppo since Feb. 22 alone.
It urged the UN to block the flow of arms to the government and any group committing abuses against civilians in the country where an estimated 150,000 people have been killed in the past three years.
“The Security Council should impose an arms embargo on Syria’s government, as well as on any groups implicated in widespread or systematic human rights abuses,” HRW said.
The group said attacks that cannot distinguish between fighters and civilians are “unlawful”.
The rights group said the supply of arms to rebel groups that have committed systematic abuses must also stop.
Meanwhile, mortar shells slammed into central Damascus yesterday, hitting an educational institute in a barrage that killed at least 14 people and wounded 86, state media reported.
“Fourteen citizens were killed and 86 others wounded by terrorists who targeted the Shaghur neighborhood in Damascus with four mortar shells,” the SANA news agency said, adding that two shells hit the Badr al-Din al-Hussein institute.
The government and media use the term “terrorists” for all those seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The institute is reportedly an Islamic law center.
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