Assad regime used over 5,000 barrel bombs since Sept.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a Monday report that Assad regime had dropped at least 5,238 barrel bombs since September last year when Russian air campaign started.

Toxic gas was also used in some of the barrel bombs, according to the London-based NGO.

1,428 of the barrel bombs were used in January this year and the majority of them – 1,123 of them - were dropped in rural areas of Damascus, the report said.

The regime forces had fired the first barrel bomb in Idlib, 2012, it added.