Those who did not report seeing or hearing a helicopter or the sound of the falling weapons said they were indoors at the time.

In the below example, a gas cylinder inside a barrel bomb casing from an April 2014 attack in Kafr Zita can be seen:

Since the Syrian government turned over its chemical weapons, its most notorious tool has been the barrel bomb, an oil drum or similar container filled with high explosives and metal fragments.

In mid-February at around 5:30 p.m. a bomb that witnesses described as a barrel bomb struck a one-story home in the Nayrib neighborhood of Aleppo city, killing a mother and her three children and injuring a fourth child.

He told Human Rights Watch a second barrel was dropped on the northern section of the neighborhood on the same day, killing civilians, but that he did not document it.

Before the attack he saw a helicopter hovering over the neighborhood and then received a call from a friend who told him the helicopter had dropped a barrel bomb there.

The U.N. report said, “The [rebel-connected] eyewitness, who stated to have been on the roof, said to have heard a helicopter and the ‘very loud’ sound of a falling barrel.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch they saw a helicopter dropping a barrel bomb or heard a helicopter immediately prior to an explosion, followed immediately by a peculiar odor.

The report said, “The eyewitness, who stated to have been on the roof, said to have heard a helicopter and the ‘very loud’ sound of a falling barrel.

The U.N. report said, “The eyewitness, who stated to have been on the roof, said to have heard a helicopter and the ‘very loud’ sound of a falling barrel.

It would therefore appear that the purpose of adding chlorine gas to barrel bombs is to instill fear that a poison or toxic gas has been used, Human Rights Watch said.

While this was the first barrel bomb to hit their neighborhood, Wafa’s mother explained that it is not the first time their neighborhood has been bombed, despite it being a residential area.

One can search videos of attacks by the type of weapon used — barrel bombs, cluster munitions, drones and sarin gas are among just a few of the options in the “weapons used” drop-down menu.

Of course, the statement could not be corroborated because it was crazy to believe that people could discern the presence of a chlorine canister inside a “barrel bomb” by its “distinct whistling sound.

The U.N. report might have added that there was no plausible explanation for someone detecting a chlorine canister in a “barrel bomb” based on its “distinct whistling sound.

Although the report didn’t say so, there was no plausible explanation for someone detecting a chlorine canister in a “barrel bomb” based on its “distinct whistling sound.