Three civilians were reportedly killed in alleged Russian, Syrian regime, Israeli or US-led Coalition airstrikes on Tarhin village, Aleppo governorate, on November 25th, 2019, according to local sources. An unknown number of civilians were wounded.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “local sources said that six explosions were heard in different areas, and the sources confirmed that the raids targeted the Al-Haraqat area near Tarhin village, Al Burj village and the southern part of Jarabulus city.” The SOHR added that there were reports of injured civilians in Tarhin.
Smart News Agency said that “three people were killed and another was missing as a result of the shelling by unknown warplanes of oil burners near the village of Tarhin in the Al Bab area, east of Aleppo city in northern Syria.”
There were conflicting claims against the Coalition, Israel, Russia and the Assad regime. According to Baladi News, “there was a discrepancy in information about the identity of the aircraft, whether they were Russian or belonging to the international coalition.” Sources reported that the Turkish army and/or Turkish-backed factions were the target.
A tweet from @putintintin1 referred to an “unknown warplane (believed to be UAV) targeted a truck near Tarhin”.
@osama_sy87 tweeted a video, writing that “Russian airstrikes targeted oil burners in Tarhin village of Al Bab countryside, north of Aleppo, which resulted in deaths and injuries of burners workers, as well as shelling of oil burners and tanks in Al Kousa village of Jarablus countryside, east Aleppo.”
A Syrian PC correspondent reported that “a number of oil burners in the village of Tarhin of the city of Bab east of Aleppo were killed and others were injured after Russian aircraft targeted three oil tanks in the village.”
Effect News posted a video of Syrian Civil Defence volunteers recovering the heavily charred bodies of the victims a day after the strikes. The SCD themselves wrote that “three people were found dead by Civil Defense teams as they inspected the area that was hit by aerial bombardments yesterday evening in Tarhin village east of Aleppo.”
Step News Agency reported that, according to a private source, “telephone conversations took place on Tuesday, the nineteenth of this month [November], between the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Yisrael Katz, and the co-chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Council ‘Syria’, Ilham Ahmed.”
According to the informant, “the two sides agreed during the contacts on the principle of oil for protection, that is, Israel’s access to Syrian oil located in areas controlled by the militia ‘SDF’ northeast of the country, in return for securing protection for the militia, and pressure on Turkey regarding its military operation Peace Spring”, implying that Israel had been responsible for the strikes on Tarhin villages.
The source added that “the raid on the oil burning areas was aimed at sending a message to the opposition factions supported by Turkey, and behind Turkey, not to extend too much in the areas of Operation Peace Spring.”
Zaman Al Wasl reported that, according to a private military source, the Coalition had been responsible for the strikes. In their August 2020 civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition assessed reports of civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area at that time.
The incident occured during the night.
