Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least four civilians, including a young man, were killed and three to four others were injured in alleged Israeli airstrikes or Syrian regime air defense strikes on Qarah on August 19/20, 2021. Sources reported that four additional members of Hezbollah were killed in the strikes.
A tweet from @SARASALLOUM963 quoted the Head of Qara City Council as reporting that “four civilian workers were killed and three others were injured as a result of the Israeli aggression on Qara last night”.
Enab Baladi quoted the Russian “TASS” news agency as reporting that “the warplanes targeted three points in Qara, and three missiles landed on civilian homes, killing four civilians and wounding four others, as well as destroying two houses and damaging nearby buildings” and “the ages of the dead ranged between 20 and 50 years, and the wounded were taken to the hospital in the nearby city of Deir Atiyah”.
@SARASALLOUM963 also identified the name of one of the people killed: Jaafar, the son of Abdul Jabbar Taha, a member of Kefraya and Al Foah, who was expelled from his village in Idlib countryside, was killed. @AuroraIntel referred to Jaafar as being a civilians.
According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, four members of Lebanese Hezbollah were killed and others were wounded in the strikes on weapons warehouses and other military posts belonging to Lebanese Hezbollah in Qarah. They added that Lebanese Hezbollah uses the area to smuggle fuel from Lebanon to Syria.
@QalaatM identified the names of two of the “soldiers” killed in the strikes: Maher Ahmed Hilal and Adel Khader Al-Fatlawi, who was serving in the IRGC-linked Brigade.
Damascus SV reported on both the Hezbollah militia members and the civilians killed in the strikes, indicating that both civilians and belligerents were killed. They quoted Voice of the Capital correspondents in the western Qalamoun, who said that “ambulances loaded with corpses and wounded arrived at several government hospitals”. In addition, they also quoted the Qara City Council’s reported on civilians being killed but added that “local sources accused the anti-missiles fired by the air defenses of killing and wounding civilians”.
Step News reported that in response to the Israeli airstrikes, the Syrian regime launched air defense missiles and an image posted by Damascus Voice shows “remnants of the Russian “Pantsir” air defense missiles”. Syrian Arab News Agency, an agency associated with the Syrian regime, reported that the regime had shot down most of the missiles and were still assessing the outcome.
Tweets from @AuroraIntel and @SAMSyria0 were able to identify the geolocation of the strikes. Sources were conflicted as to whether the Israeli strikes or the Syrian defense strikes were responsible for the civilian casualties.
The incident occured around midnight.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (26) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (12) [ collapse]
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Remnants of the Russian "Pantsir" air defense missiles that fell in the residential neighborhoods of the city of Damascus on the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Damascus Voice)
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Remnants of the Russian "Pantsir" air defense missiles that fell in the residential neighborhoods of the city of Damascus on the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Damascus Voice)
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Jaafar, the son of Abdul Jabbar Taha, a member of Kefraya and Al Foah, who was expelled from his village in Idlib countryside, was killed in alleged Israeli strikes on Qarah on August 19/20, 2021. (Image posted by @SARASALLOUM963)
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Strikes on Damascus and surrounding areas the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Syrian Arab News Agency)
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Strikes on Damascus and surrounding areas the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Syrian Arab News Agency)
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Strikes on Damascus and surrounding areas the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Syrian Arab News Agency)
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Strikes on Damascus and surrounding areas the evening of August 19, 2021. (Image posted by Syrian Arab News Agency)
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Adel Khader Al-Fatlawi, identified by @QalaatM as a soldier, was killed in strikes on Qarah on August 19, 2021. (Image posted by @SAMSyria0)
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Maher Ahmed Hilal, identified by @QalaatM as a soldier, was killed in strikes on Qarah on August 19, 2021. (Image posted by @SAMSyria0)
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Maher Ahmed Hilal, identified by @QalaatM as a soldier, was killed in strikes on Qarah on August 19, 2021. (Image posted by @SAMSyria0)
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Adel Khader Al-Fatlawi, identified by @QalaatM as a soldier, was killed in strikes on Qarah on August 19, 2021. (Image posted by @QalaatM)
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Civilian planes flying to Beirut airport were rerouted due to alleged Israeli strikes in Qarah on August 19, 2021. (Image posted by @Intel_Sky)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Qarah (قارة), for which the generic coordinates are: 34.154232, 36.743259. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.