Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RS085

Incident date

October 27, 2015

Location

أم ميال, Um Mayyal, Hama, Syria

Geolocation

35.39415, 37.40038 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Village level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

In a contested event, four named women and men were reported killed in an airstrike at Um Mayyal. While Violations Documentation Center, the Syrian Network and others blamed Russia, the opposition Syria News Desk – which said three homes were destroyed in the incident – said the attack was the work of Assad regime aircraft.

The Syrian Network later published eyewitness testimony from Hassan Al Ahmad, manager of the Child Care Organization, who visited the site: “I was 1.5 km away from the shelling location and went directly to see what happened. I saw a group of young men from the civil defense trying to tell the crowds to leave the shelling site out of fear from being shelled again. The council was shelled previously and the schools suffered from great damage, and four young men were injured Our city is run by local civilian committees and is free of any military presence for any group as all headquarters were evacuated according to the residents’ demands. However, the Russian warplanes launched their airstrikes on civilians.”

The dead were later named.

The Syrian Network said four young men were injured in the attack – but made no mention of fatalities.

 

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Family members (3)

Khlaif Shahoud al-Hekari
Adult male killed
Shahoud Khlaif al-Hekari
Adult male killed
Fatima Khlaif al-Hekari
Adult female killed

The victims were named as:

Dahlia
Adult female 52 year old killed

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the village of Um Myal (أم ميال), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.39415, 37.40038. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    4
  • (2 women2 men)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Unknown, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]

Unknown Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Unknown
  • Unknown position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Original strike reports

Unknown

The Russian Defence Ministry has confirmed carrying out airstrikes in Hama governorate on October 27th-28th 2015: “For 24 hours, aircraft of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic have performed 71 combat sorties engaging 118 terrorist objects in the Idlib, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus and Lattakia provinces.”

Syrian Regime Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Syrian Regime
  • Syrian Regime position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    4
  • (2 women2 men)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Unknown, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]