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Airwars Assessment
On Wednesday, December 4th 2024, three civilians were killed and three others, including children, were injured by a drone strike allegedly launched by the Turkish military on a military vehicle in the vicinity of “Ararat” car wash located near the Sayyid gas station in al-Malikiyah (Derik) in the al-Jazeera canton, part of the al-Hasakah region in the north-eastern Syria. Some of the victims were reportedly working at the car wash facility.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that a Turkish drone “targeted a site near a military vehicle in al-Malikiyah.” SOHR reported the death of two civilians, while those in a car survived. At least one civilian who was killed was reported to be a car wash worker. The SOHR added an image of the vehicle on fire, with a thick black cloud of smoke billowing into the sky.
Hawar News further reported that two civilians died of wounds sustained from the drone strike, whilst the two injured received medical assistance. The Hawar News correspondent also reported that a loud explosion was heard in the city, and the “Ararat” car wash was near the bus garage in the city. Furthermore, on Facebook, @Arta.fm reported that three children were injured in the attack. It was stated that they were working at a car wash near the Sayyid gas station and next to the garage. However, no other reports corroborated this. The post was accompanied by an image showing a cloud of white smoke rising to the sky at the horizon.
Nabd News named the two deceased civilians as Abdullah Ali al-Ahmad and Anas Tamam Muhammad. Muhammad worked in the area that was struck by the drone (car wash). Included in the report were images of the deceased. Muhammad is placed on the left-hand side of the image. He was pictured as a middle-aged man with a thick beard and short hair, whilst wearing a plain black t-shirt. Al-Ahmad was a young man. He also had short hair and was wearing a blue chequered button shirt over a turtleneck jumper.
The Facebook user Cûdî Rojava reported on the civilians who were killed in the incident, adding that Ahmed Laharbawi, an employee of the car wash, was also killed. Anas Tamam Muhammad from the village of Tal Khanzir was named as the owner of the car wash, and Abdullah Ali al-Ahmad was named as a civilian from the village of Tal Sadiq who worked at the car wash. The post was accompanied by photos of the three victims. Muhammad was pictured smiling at the camera in front of a white car, wearing an all black outfit. The same photo of al-Ahmad is used, this time displaying the full image. Al-Ahmad wore black trousers and had his hands in his pockets as he posed for the camera. The third photo was of Ahmed Laharbawi. He was a young man pictured on a motorcycle wearing grey bottoms and a black/grey t-shirt. He had a moustache and was wearing sunglasses whilst looking at the camera.
Alyaum TV and all previously noted sources named the belligerent to be the Turkish military.
Victims
Individuals
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of the Sayyid gas station (محطة وقود السيد) in the city of Al-Malikiyah (مدينة المالكية), for which the generic coordinates are: 37.170379, 42.136869. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.