Stop the Bombs
Planet Syria campaign demands peace talks
There is no military solution to the conflict in Syria. Civil society groups from across Syria have come together to urge all-inclusive peace talks as the only way to simultaneously end barrel bomb attacks on civilians and the spread of ISIS.
The campaign – called Planet Syria – brings together 85 nonviolent groups.
Since February 2014 a further 6,479 civilians, including over 1,800 children, have been killed in barrel bombs attacks that are condemed by the U.N. Security Council.
Activists say that the Syrian government last week dropped barrel bombs – crude improvised barrels filled with shrapnel and explosives and rolled out of helicopters – which were filled with chlorine over Idlib, in northwestern Syria, killing six civilians and injuring dozens more.
Barrel bombs, the Planet Syria campaign says, are so imprecise that they represent no military advantage for the Syrian regime, the only party in the war that possesses the helicopters necessary to drop them.
The link between barrel bombs and the rise of ISIS, it adds, is that senseless violence can push people to become radicalized.
The resumption of genuine peace talks, including all Syrian parties, and with the backing of the international community, is the only way to combat violence and extremism, the campaign states.
Activists behind the campaign are organizing a global day of solidarity with Planet Syria, two weeks after the launch, April 7.