Huge IEDs Fall from the Sky in Damascus

22 Feb 2015 - Syrian army drops a couple of huge barrel bombs on rebel positions in Damascus. A barrel bomb is a type of improvised explosive device (IED). Sometimes described as a "flying IED", they are typically made from a barrel that has been filled with high explosives, with possibly shrapnel, oil or chemicals, and then dropped from a helicopter or aeroplane. Due to the large amount of explosives that can be packed into a barrel, their poor accuracy and indiscriminate use in populated civilian areas (including refugee camps), the resulting detonations have been devastating. Critics have characterized them as weapons of terror and illegal under international conventions. The earliest known use of barrel bombs in their current form was in Sudan in the 1990s, where they were rolled out of cargo-doors of transport planes. Barrel bombs have been used extensively by the Syrian Air Force during the Syrian Civil War and later by the Iraqi forces during Anbar clashes. Experts believe they will continue to be embraced by unstable nations fighting insurgencies since they are cheap to make and utilise the advantages of a government's air-power. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_bomb