A major report published by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) outlined systematic targeting of hospitals by Syrian Regime and Russian forces throughout their campaign on opposition-controlled areas in Syria. The report, “Hunting the Wounded: Double-Tap Strikes on Healthcare Facilities”, outlined for the first time a pattern of attack where individuals wounded in initial strikes were hit again when they were transferred to nearby hospitals.

According to the SJAC investigative team, this variation on so-called ‘double tap’ attacks, where first responders are targeted in a second strike on the same location, “suggests that they were made pursuant to an intentional military strategy conceived by high-level leadership, rather than individual military commanders”. The report was used as a crucial evidence base to allege serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes by Russian and Syrian regime forces.

Airwars is cited throughout the report, with particular reference to incidents where Airwars’ teams were able to reconcile the location of the alleged civilian harm with flight path observation data provided to Airwars by flight tracking groups. This provided a key piece of evidence for the SJAC investigators, who were able to corroborate our findings with witness testimonies, interviews and other closed source visual evidence. The report also cites Airwars’ visual investigation into a hospital attack in Afrin, which included a detailed recreation of a strike alongside interviews with survivors.