BEIRUT — The world might be gripped by the horrors perpetrated by the Islamic State group, but a wider bloodbath provoked by Syria’s civil war is continuing unabated, with several hundred people killed in the past week alone. Syrian opposition activists said Friday that the government has increased airstrikes against their strongholds in recent days in hopes of wearing out rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
Among the latest casualties were at least 25 civilians killed Thursday night when army helicopters dropped two barrel bombs into a crowded square in the northern city of Aleppo. Many victims were sitting on a public bus, while others were waiting to collect water from a tanker, when the “barrels of death” — as the crude helicopter-dropped explosives are known to Syrians — landed.
An amateur video posted by activists online showed paramedics helping a wounded man whose face was covered with blood come out of the bus. The body of a woman can be seen in the back of the bus, while another man lies on the pavement outside.
The footage shows paramedics, flashlights on their helmets, pulling an older man from a bus window in the darkness. An unidentified man offers a plea to the camera that bombs are “falling on us every day!”
“Is she alive? If she’s dead, leave her. … The ones who are still breathing are a priority,” a rescue worker shouts.
The video, which appeared genuine and corresponded to AP’s reporting of the events depicted, captured a snapshot of the carnage in Syria. The nearly 4-year-old conflict has resulted in more than 220,000 deaths, according to U.N. estimates.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokewswoman Marie Harf condemned the Assad forces’ latest attacks.
“These attacks show an utter disregard for human life,” she said, arguing that “there can never be a stable, inclusive Syria under the leadership of this ruthless dictator. … Assad has lost all legitimacy and must go.”
The Aleppo attack reflected a broader government offensive against rebel positions across Syria, where the civil war is attracting little attention versus the vicious exploits of the Islamic State group. It controls large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq, but anti-government activists say the world should keep its focus on the atrocities committed by Assad’s forces.
“Everything Daesh is doing now, the (Syrian) regime has done before and is still doing,” said Syrian activist Ahmed al-Ahmad, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym. “But the world protects Assad and only cares about Daesh crimes.”
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents Syria’s civil war through a network of activists on the ground, said it has recorded about 650 airstrikes this month. These include more than 350 barrel-bomb strikes in several areas, including the eastern Damascus suburbs called Eastern Ghouta, Aleppo and the nearby city of Idlib, and the southern province of Daraa.
The organization said Thursday marked the highest death toll for the past week, with 242 people killed, nearly half of them civilians killed as a result of government airstrikes
