By now you’ve heard of Assad’s reported use of barrel bombs, but what about vacuum bombs?
Activists reported 20 people were killed when this mysterious device was fired pro-regime forces in Idlib last Wednesday. It’s the first time we’ve heard the name in over a year, but vacuum bombs have popped up before on the Syrian battlefield.
Here’s a video purporting to show regime forces using one back in 2012, also in Idlib.
In a nutshell, these are thermobaric weapons, meaning they produce higher heat, fuel heavy explosions that last longer than conventional devices.Their indiscriminate spread of heat and pressure on the ground makes their use in civilian-populated areas illegal under international law.
Outside Syria, they’ve been used by both the US in Afghanistan and by Russian forces in Chechnya.
Earlier videos purportedly documented vacuum explosions during the regime offensive on Homs. The FSA has claimed they were also used in Aleppo and Kafr Batna in 2012.
Then, in 2013 Human Rights Watch confirmed that Assad had attacked a school in Raqqa, saying that the bombs dropped were likely vacuum bombs.
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