Being that the rebel stronghold is located in Homs, the Assad regime has dramatically stepped up its use of force over the past few weeks, now using helicopters and military jets to bomb the city.
As Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi & Oskar Svadkovsky report, the military is now using thermobaric bombs (fuel-air bombs) in a tactic similar to that used by Russia in Chechnya. These arms effectively turn the air into fire, and are among the most destructive weapons available:
One YouTube video identifies these as napalm bombs. Well, the balls of fire are certainly not entirely unlike videos of napalm bombing that can be found on YouTube. However, napalm is normally delivered with bombs and these are probably thermobaric or fuel-air bombs of the kind the Russians used in Chechnya. Given the regime’s connections to Russia, it comes rather natural that Mr. Putin would share with Bashar Assad his rich experience in waging counter-insurgency in the Caucuses.
See their article, including a number of video clips, in The American Spectator.
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