Syrian Government Reportedly Drops Barrel Bombs on Internal Refugee Camp in Idlib

A Syrian government helicopter reportedly dropped two barrel bombs on a camp for internally displaced people in the northern province of Idlib, killing at least 60 people, the Guardian reports.

Reuters pointed to video footage from the Abedin camp that shows corpses of women and children and burning tents while people scrambled to save the wounded.

“It’s a massacre of refugees,” said a man’s voice off camera.

“Look at them, they are civilians, displaced civilians. They fled the bombardment,” he added

The U.S. government called the incident “nothing short of barbaric.”

Human-rights groups say the regime has continuously used barrel bombs in densely populated civilian areas, despite a U.N. Security Council Resolution banning their indiscriminate use.

Nearly 10 million people – almost half of Syria’s population – have been displaced by the country’s conflict. As of May 2014, Syria had become the world’s biggest IDP crisis. On top of that, more than 3 million Syrians have fled as refugees to neighboring countries.

Car Bomb Explodes in Government-Held Area of Homs

A car bomb wounded 37 people in a government-held area of Homs on Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing Syrian state media.

“Terrorists detonated a car bomb in the center of Zahra neighborhood in Homs city,” said state television, as cited in the report.

A double suicide bombing on October 1 of a school in the pro-regime neighborhood Akrameh, also in Homs, stirred rare public protests; government loyalists called for the resignation of Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs, and criticized official media for not acknowledging the high number of dead and missing among regime loyalists in other attacks.

Loyalists have increasingly expressed their dissatisfaction since August, when the government lost the Tabqa air base to Islamic State militants in Raqqa province.

“Soldier’s families said more than 100 of their kin were left to die without attempts to save or resupply them,” Reuters wrote]8 earlier this month.

ISIS Militants Attack Sh’ar Oil and Gas Field

ISIS militants attacked an oil and gas field in Syria, killing at least 30 regime gunmen and security guards, AFP reports, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“ISIS managed to control parts of the field,” said the group.

A previous attack by ISIS on the Sh’ar gas field in July left 350 government troops, guards and staff dead, but regime forces were able to recapture the field later that month.

Fighting between the Syrian government and ISIS became more prevalent this summer, when ISIS militants started to seize government positions, including key military bases in Raqqa.

ISIS has targeted oil and gas facilities in Iraq and Syria in order to fund its fight, seize territory and create a well-financed “Islamic caliphate” according to its own interpretation of Muslim law.

U.S. Strikes Fail to Destroy Khorasan Group, as Two Key Operatives Survive

Officials from the U.S. intelligence community believe that two key operatives from the Khorasan Group are still alive, despite being targeted by coalition strikes that began in September.

An intelligence analysts claims it is “99.5% certain” that Muhsin al-Fadhli, the leader of the group, and David Drugeon, a French jihadist and key member, are alive, CNN reports.

The U.S. has said that the Khorasan Group, an al-Qaida affiliate, poses a direct threat to U.S. security. Drugeon is believed to have ties to al-Qaida in Pakistan and is “heavily involved in facilitating the movement of fighters back and forth from Europe.”

U.S. officials had recently said that the airstrikes in Syria have not destroyed the Khorasan Group or the threat it represents.

“I don’t think there’s any realistic likelihood that some limited airstrikes even just for a period of time will degrade that threat altogether,” said the recently retired director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen.

Top Officials Claim an Unprecedented Number of Foreign Fighters Are Pouring into Syria

Top U.S. and British counterterrorism officials claim that an unprecedented number and variety of foreign fighters are pouring into Syria, NBC News reports.

“It’s greater than anything we’ve seen into Afghanistan, into Yemen, into Somalia, into Iraq, or anything that we’ve seen in the last 10-year period,”]14 said Randy Blake, a senior strategic adviser in the U.S. Office of Director of National Intelligence.

Around 16,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Syria from over 80 countries, Blake said, adding that “roughly 2,000 of those fighters hail from Western countries.”

Authorities have also made it very hard to identify a demographic profile of the Western fighters and to say what is motivating them to travel.

According to the Washington Post, “Tunisia has become the largest source of foreign fighters joining ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.”

Recommended Reads:

• The Economist: Syria’s Kurdish Areas

• Al Monitor: Saudi Prince Blames Obama Policy for IS Rise

• Wall Street Journal: Syria-Turkey Border Heats Up as Iraqi Kurds Approach

• Reuters: U.S. Says Working with Iraqi Kurdistan to Stop Islamic State Oil Smuggling

• New York Times Open Lens: Poverty and Uncertainty for Widows of ‘Syrian Freedom Fighters’

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AP Images