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| Reports of incendiary bombs have heightened fears in Daraya, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.Fadi Dirani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government aircraft hit the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Daraya with incendiary bombs for the third straight day on Wednesday, according to local council members, who said the weapons were packed with substances akin to napalm.
Incendiary bombs emit bright light that resembles fireworks and ignite persistent fires, heating to temperatures up to 10 times the boiling point of water.
Usually armed with thermite or phosphorus, which can cause horrific burns like those inflicted by napalm in American bombardments during the Vietnam War, the weapons are increasingly being used in attacks on rebel-held areas, especially in the contested northern city of Aleppo, according to Syrian opposition activists and human rights groups that are calling for an end to the practice.
And the Syrian government’s most powerful ally, Russia, may also be using the weapons in its own airstrikes, Human Rights Watch contends, citing footage from Russian state-run television that showed the bombs clearly labeled on an attack aircraft in Syria, and similar casings found at attack sites.
Incendiary weapons have been used at least 18 times in the past nine weeks, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued this week, mostly in and around Aleppo, as well as in Idlib Province. The group said that activists and residents had reported at least 40 other cases, but that it had confirmed only 18 through video footage and other evidence.
Unlike chemical weapons, incendiary weapons are not entirely banned, but an international agreement signed by 113 nations forbids their use on areas with concentrations of civilians. Russia is a signatory to the agreement, Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Syria is not.
Human Rights Watch said there was “compelling evidence” that Russia was using the weapons, citing footage broadcast on June 18 that showed a Russian attack aircraft at Russia’s air base in the Syrian province of Latakia armed with RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM incendiary bombs.
In November 2015, soon after Russia’s air force entered the conflict inSyria, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei V. Lavrov, wrote in a letter to Human Rights Watch that incendiary weapons were being used in Syria, saying that “improper use” had led to “significant humanitarian damage” but not specifying who had deployed them.
Russia has not responded to the more recent allegations, and government spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment. Many signatories to the protocol, including the United States, have been accused of improper use of phosphorus weapons, and pinning down such use is difficult because militaries often argue that they are being used on military targets
“The Syrian government and Russia should immediately stop attacking civilian areas with incendiary weapons,” said Steve Goose, the director of arms research at Human Rights Watch. “These weapons inflict horrible injuries and excruciating pain, so all countries should condemn their use in civilian areas.”
He added that the allegations underscore the inadequate enforcement of the protocol.
The allegations come amid reports of suspected chemical weapons being used again in Syria, including chlorine gas. The High Negotiations Committee, an opposition group, demanded on Wednesday investigations into whether the government of President Bashar al-Assad was still using the banned weapons three years after a Russian-brokered deal to dismantle its previously unacknowledged toxic arms program averted American military strikes.
The government denies it uses chemical weapons and has blamed insurgents for their use.
Meanwhile, fighting has escalated around Aleppo as Russia expands its Syria operations to include flying long-range bombers out of Iran, a move that took place for the first time on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.
Mr. Lavrov said Wednesday that the use of the Iran base did not violate United Nations resolutions governing the Iran nuclear deal, which forbid the delivery of military aircraft to Iran without specific approval. American government lawyers said on Wednesday that they were still looking into the matter.
Numerous videos in recent weeks — many of them cited in the Human Rights Watch report — show fires and other telltale signs of incendiary bombs.
In Daraya, the attack on Wednesday hit the town’s only field hospital, Amjad Abbar, a local councilman said by internet voice messaging.
While the incendiary bombs — commonly referred to as napalm, a jellylike substance invented during World War II — have not killed nearly as many people as ordinary bombs, they have heightened fears in Daraya, which has been under siege for more than three years and is under near-daily bombardment.
“Believe it or not,” Mr. Abbar said, “when people hear barrel bombs falling, they pray for them to be explosives, not napalm. Imagine.”
The local council issued a statement on Monday calling for the cessation of all bombardment and for access to humanitarian aid, as called for in several Security Council resolutions.
“The international community remains suspiciously silent,” it concluded, despite its “continuous alleged commitment to finding a peaceful solution to what it calls ‘the Syrian crisis.’”
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