(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) France condemned on Monday the indiscriminate use of deadly "barrel bombs" against civilians in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and nearby areas.
The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement these "intensive bombardments" by the Syrian air force "have caused numerous victims, including children," calling on the Syrian regime to halt violations of international humanitarian law.
Many dozens of people are believed to have died in the latest air attacks in the north of Syria and particularly in Aleppo, the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry also noted that the civilian population in Aleppo was now caught between the Syrian regime attacks and the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which are progressing to the east of the city.
France has said several times that barrel bomb use and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians are "barbaric acts" and those ordering them and carrying them out should be brought before international justice.
"As underlined multiple times by the United Nations commission of enquiry, these indiscriminate bombings, which are part of the Syrian regime strategy, deliberately target civilians and aim at houses, schools, markets and religious sites," the ministry has said, noting that they are "war crimes, even crimes against humanity." An estimated 230,000 people have died in the four-year Syrian conflict so far, and most of the casualties have been civilians. Around 10 million Syrians have been forced to flee the fighting and have become internal or external refugees in what is a major humanitarian crisis in the region and will go down in history as "the biggest human drama of the beginning of this century," in the words of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
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