FOOTAGE: RUSSIAN MILITARY SERVICEMEN ARRIVING TO YPG-HELD AFRIN

A screenshot from the video

ANNA News released a video depicting Russian military servicemen arriving the YPG-held area of Afrin in the Syrian province of Aleppo. On Monday, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said that Russia had decided to set up a military base in the area. Later the Russian Defense Ministry denied that it was not going to create a military base and a unit of the Reconciliation Centre had been deployed to the area to “observe” the ceasefire.

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Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

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