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 recently taken by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant militants, fear that Iraqi forces will use these devices as part of a government counteroffensive. Barrel bombs are not a weapon of first choice; they are used when other options are lacking, and there are many disadvantages to barrel bombs. For a start, they have a high dud rate due to their often-shoddy construction in makeshift munitions factories. Furthermore, barrel bombs are by nature highly indiscriminate. Their use often involves simply hand-pushing the munitions out of a helicopter over a populated target. This method leads to high levels of collateral damage, and civilians in many cities in Syria, for example, have paid a high price during barrel bombing campaigns.
Despite these disadvantages, widespread barrel bomb use will continue in many asymmetrical conflicts where the state does not maintain an advanced air force. The current Syrian regime is a great example, with its lack of precision-guided munitions and a large number of defected pilots. Barrel bombs are not preferable to modern munitions, but they offer significant advantages. While often poorly built and inefficient, barrel bomb construction is relatively cheap, easy and can be done in forward-deployed positions. Use of the weapon also does not require a highly skilled air force. As long as transport helicopters and pilots are available, these weapons can be utilized. For an army that is not squeamish about civilian casualties — or that is in fact deliberately seeking them — barrel bombs also offer a unique and terrifying punitive weapon to terrorize the civilian population with.
Improvised explosive devices, whether buried at the roadside, launched at the tip of a crude rocket, or dropped from the air have been hallmarks of recent asymmetrical conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. These munitions, of which barrel bombs are a prominent example, will remain in wide use in future asymmetrical conflicts due to the unique advantages they offer to a resource-poor belligerent.
