Syria's Assad and Russia accused of napalming anti-Assad rebels, civilians

Every day this week, Syrian government aircraft have hit opposition-controlled areas of a Damascus suburb, Daraya, with incendiary bombs, local council members tell The New York Times, targeting the area with a napalm-like substance. In a report on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch says the substance is likely thermite, which, like napalm and white phosphorous, ignites super-hot fires that are difficult to extinguish and causes painful burns that are difficult to treat.

Human Rights Watch says it has confirmed at least 18 incendiary bomb attacks in the past nine weeks, mostly around Aleppo, and that "there is compelling evidence that Russian government aircraft are being used to deliver incendiary weapons or at least are participating with Syrian government aircraft in attacks using incendiary weapons." That evidence includes witness accounts, photographic evidence, Russian TV footage showing Russian fighter jets at a Syrian air base loaded with RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM incendiary bombs, and bomb fragments in civilian areas. Russia is a signatory to Protocol III of the international Convention on Conventional Weapons, which prohibits the use of aerial incendiary bombs in areas with civilians; Syria is not.

"The Syrian government and Russia should immediately stop attacking civilian areas with incendiary weapons," said Steve Goose, the director of HRW's arms research unit. "These weapons inflict horrible injuries and excruciating pain, so all countries should condemn their use in civilian areas." Amjad Abbar, a Daraya councilman, told The New York Times on Wednesday that while the incendiary bombs don't kill as many people, they terrify civilians. "Believe it or not," he said, "when people hear barrel bombs falling, they pray for them to be explosives, not napalm. Imagine."

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In a separate report on Thursday, Amnesty International details the brutal torture and death at Syria's prisons, especially the Saydnaya military prison. Aside from electric shocks, beatings, and rape, the report estimates that at least 17,732 detainees died in detention between March 15, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2015, during President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests and the subsequent civil war. "For decades, Syrian government forces have used torture as a means to crush their opponents," said Amnesty International's Philip Luther. "Today, it is being carried out as part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against anyone suspected of opposing the government in the civilian population and amounts to crimes against humanity."

Napalm and torture are terrible and likely criminal, but a video released by the Aleppo Media Center is a reminder that even conventional airstrikes on the remains of a major city can be heartbreaking. Peter Weber