During the evening of Sunday, December 17, 2023, at least five identified civilians, including a child and a woman pregnant with twins, were killed and five civilians, including two children, were injured in an alleged attack by the Syrian regime and/or the Iranian military and/or the Russian military on the residential neighborhoods of Darat Azza, west of Aleppo, Syria. Among the killed was the father of a Syrian Civil Defense volunteer.

Among the civilians killed were a male child named Omar Amin, a pregnant woman named Manar Houwari, two brothers named Hasan Qasem and Qasem Qasem, and the father of the SDC volunteer Ali Obaid named Mahmoud Mohammed Obaid.

The SDC shared a touching video of the grieving Ali Obaid next to the dead body of his father wrapped in a white shroud, the caption of the video stating: “He cries for his lost supporter, father, friend, and companion..the last moments of farewell given by volunteer Ali Obaid to his father.”

In another tweet, the SDC expressed its condolences to its staff member and wrote “He carries him knowingly to his final resting place, washes his father’s body with tears, shrouds him and carries him in peace to his mother who left him about a year ago, our fellow volunteer “Ali Obaid” in his moments of farewell to his father who was killed today, Sunday, December 17.”

Twitter/X users @fawaz_jwaid and @MonirMustafa3 also posted condolence messages for Ali Obaid on Twitter/X. User @fawaz_jwaid also shared an image of the late Mahmoud – an elderly man with gray hair and a gray beard. Mahmoud’s nephew Emad Obied also mourned his death, writing “May God accept him and make him dwell in His spacious gardens and make his grave a garden of Paradise” and sharing an image of the late Mahmoud in a grey shirt among nature.

Facebook user @Shahid Plus shared on social media pictures of two deceased men, Hassan and Qasim, both in their midd-aged, having short hair and a beard. The pictures are accompanied by the following: “My cousins are martyrs for the sake of God. Hassan Qasim. Qasim Qasim. Darat Azza.” The late Qasim and Hassan’s brother Mohammed Mohammed mourned Qasim’s death in a Facebook post, sharing an image of a bearded man in a checkered shirt and blue trousers with an instrument in his hands.

The civilians injured were identified as Omran Hasan, Amor Abdulrazaq Ibrahim, Hasan Osama Da’ef, Ahmad Maher Da’ef, and Mohammed Hussein Qaddah.

X/Twitter user @SyriaCivilDefe shared on the platform at 6:01 PM that “5 civilians were killed, including a child and a woman pregnant with twins, and among the victims was also the father of our volunteer, “Ali Obaid,” and five civilians, including two children, were injured, including seriously, and fires broke out as a result of artillery and missile shelling by regime forces that targeted the residential neighborhoods of the city of Darat Azza, west of #Aleppo, this Sunday evening.”

Aref Watad reported a total of eight civilians killed; the Syrian Civil Defence initially reported a total of three civilians killed and later a total of five. @Bilal_aljaber18 and @almohrarmedia2 also reported three civilian deaths. When the other sources identified the number of civilian deaths, they reported a total of five. Where the sources mentioned the toll of injured civilians, they all reported five injured civilians.

At 6:01 PM, X/Twitter user @SyriaCivilDefe shared some pictures of the alleged attack showing a house on fire, men wearing White Helmets uniforms close to what seemed to be a full white human remains pouch (HRP). The same user shared more pictures at 6:34 PM on the social media platform, showing various building façades destroyed by fire. The roofs were broken down, the doors divelted, and the street in front of the buildings was filled with rubbles and ashes. The scenes in the pictures were characterized by the predominance of black and gray colors, seemingly as a result of a fire. A motorcycle and a van were portrayed in the pictures as well, as they stand completely burnt in the scene. A sentence accompanied the pictures: “Life disappeared from the place that used to pulse, and death, destruction, and devastation spread after a missile and artillery bombardment by regime forces targeted the city of Darat Azza, west of #Aleppo, on the evening of Sunday, December 17, and the effects of the bombing remained a witness to the ongoing crime for more than 12 years.”

As a result of the attack, a fire broke out in a store selling fuel and foodstuffs. A video filmed by Mohab Nasser that showed fire ravaging the buildings was shared by multiple users on Twitter/X social media platform.

X/Twitter user @anasanas84 at 4:01 PM shared a video showing a group of men on a street in front of a fire as high as the men’s torso. The soil next to the fire was covered with a bright red splatter. The group of men were running around the fire, one of them trying to put a blanket over what seemed to be a burnt human body, with their burnt arms reaching towards the sky and their bodies consumed by the flames. Vans and men were running around while the fire was covering the area.

Facebook user General Media Center MMC shared on social media pictures allegedly related to the incident. The pictures showed several vehicles destroyed by the flames, the interior of possibly a food shop where one can see damaged vases filled with food, burnt walls, and a ceiling. What seems to be the exterior of that same shop was also shown; the roof was severely damaged and all its surroundings presented clear signs of a fire. One of the pictures showed a car, with all of its glass components missing, and a bright red stain across the driver’s seat.

Facebook user Aref Watad shared on the platform some pictures, which the user related to the funeral of the victims. One of the pictures showed a group of men, including two in “The White Helmets” uniforms inside of a building, surrounding a white full HRP on an elevated hospital bed. Another shot showed men sitting and standing around three white full HRPs, two lying on the floor of the room and one on an elevated hospital bed. Another picture showed a man on a hospital bed with an IV and white parchment on his upper abdomen. The last picture showed a group of men and a veiled woman praying in front of freshly dug graves. The white tombs stood starkly in opposition to the reddish brown soil.

Sources were conflicted about the responsibility of the attack. Twitter/X users @fawaz_jwaid, @anasanas84, @syrian191124, Ibrahim Sheikh, and Ibrahim Radwan attributed responsibility to the Iranian military; Ibrahim Radwan also attributed responsibility to the Russian military. All the other sources, when they identified the belligerent, referred to the Syrian regime forces as responsible for the attack.

The sources also differed about the nature of the attack – while most of the source mentioned artillery shelling, Aref Watad wrote about “Syrian regime warplanes” as perpetrators of the strike.

The incident occured in the evening.