Airwars assessment
Between four and eight civilians, including two to three children and a woman, were killed and three others were injured in alleged Russian or regime strikes on the town of Sarja on July 17, 2021.
@abdalwhab761identified “eight martyrs” from the bombing of Sarja while @OrientNews reported that six civilians were killed. A correspondent from @jisrtv also provided that six civilians were killed, including “3 children, brothers and their grandmother” and the Civil Defense member killed in the second strike assessed in incident R4345.
@syriapostnew1 tweeted about “the death of an entire family of 4 members, including a woman and two children” and a post from Edlib Media Center identified the members of the family as a man, his wife and three children. The correspondent of “Al-Suri Al-Youm” told Syrian Today that the artillery shelling resulted in “killing a woman and two children, and a number of wounded”. Syrian Civil Defense put the number of injured at six, including the three Civil Defense members injured in subsequent incident R4345.
A post by Assad Hamoudi named victims of the incident. #martyrs: Ritaj Ezzo Zureik, a child; Mays Ezzo Zureik is a girl; Sa’ida Ezzo Zureik is a baby girl; Hussein Haj Musa. #injuries: Hammam Haj Darwish; Abdul-Malik Satifi
Syrian Network for Human Rights provided details that the strikes killed ” three children sisters, named as Ritaj, Mais and Saeedah Izzou Zreiq, aged 11, 13 and 16 respectively, and injuring the other members of their family”.
The reporter @mhmdfaisel interviewed the mother of some of the victims, who told the reporter “My daughters are three under the rubble, where are my daughters!?”. Their home was also destroyed in the strikes. @OrientNews also reported that an entire family was trapped under the rubble.
Sources were conflicted as to who was responsible for the strikes. Various sources identified “laser-guided Krasnopol missiles” as being used in the strike, which are made by Russia and Syrian Civil Defense blamed the strikes on both the regime and Russia. However, sources such as Baladi News attributed the shelling to the regime.
Syrian Today reported that “the village of Sarjah is located in Jabal al-Zawiya near Jericho from the south, a civilian area controlled by the Suqur al-Sham faction, and no military presence was recorded inside it.” They also provided that the reason that Sarja was bombed is they’re “considered the first line in the confrontation with the regime because of its proximity to the line of contact in the Al-Ruwaiha area”.
The incident occured around dawn.
The victims were named as:
Family members (3)
- Ritaj Ezzo Zureik 11 years old female killed
- Mays Ezzo Zureik 13 years old female killed
- Sa’ida Ezzo Zreik 16 years old female killed
- Hussein Haj Musa Age unknown killed
- Hammam Haj Darwish Age unknown injured
- Abdul-Malik Satifi Age unknown injured
Summary
Sources (38) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (35) [ collapse]
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