Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On November 20, 2016, up to 16 civilians, including a family of six with four children, were reportedly killed by aerial shelling containing chlorine gas in the al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo. Local sources differ on whether the strike can be attributed to Russia or the Syrian regime.
SMART News Agency reported six civilians were killed and 30 victims were injured in the incident and that some victims were treated at the Children’s Hospital while others were tranferred to alternative hospitals.
SPM News, amongst other sources, reported that explosive barrels containing chlorine gas were fired from helicopters during the night between November 19 and 20, and the family of six, four children and their parents, were killed by suffocation. SPM News quoted Ibrahim Abu Al-Laith, director of the media office of the Civil Defense in Aleppo, who reported that the incident took place at 1 am and 25 people were injured in addition to the family of six who were killed.
A local correspondent for Al Jazeera in reported that the four children who were killed had been sleeping when the incident took place.
All4Syria reported the incident and shared a video from social media showing the bodies of the four children. The graphic video showed “traces of froth on their faces that came out of their mouths and noses as a result of inhaling poison gas.” @revo_spring also shared an image of the children’s bodies.
While the majority of the sources put the death toll at six, @MoAl Hlukhatieb reported that 15 people had been killed by suffocation and @ahdath1 mentioned as many as 16 were killed in the incident.
Most sources attributed the incident to the Syrian regime. However, one source, SPM News, reported that both the Syrian regime and Russia were to blame.
The incident occured during the night.
Summary
Sources (11) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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Four siblings were reportedly killed by chlorine gasses dropped from either Russian or Assad warplanes as they hit al Sakhour, Aleppo on November 20, 2016 (via @revo_spring)
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any specific strikes between November 1st – 30th 2016.
On 6 January 2017, Russia, however, reported: “Since November 8, 2016, the aircraft carrier group of the Northern Fleet consisting of the heavy aircraft carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, the large ASW ship Severomorsk, as well as auxiliary vessels of the Black Sea Fleet, has been fulfilling counterterrorist missions on the territory of Syria”, adding that ”in the course of two months of their participation in the combat actions, naval aviation pilots have carried out 420 combat sorties, 117 of them were night ones.”
Additionally, Russia reported that its air forces have carried out strikes in Aleppo during November and December 2016.