At 13:22 on Thursday, 28 November 2024, between 10 and 15 civilians, including five children and two women, were killed and up tot 22 others, including at least two children, were injured in an airstrike with contested responsibility allegedly perpetrated by the Syrian regime forces and/or Russian military that reportedly hit the main road and the houses and shops adjacent to the road in neighborhood in the city of al-Atareb in the western countryside of Aleppo, Syria. In addition to causing civilian casualties, the attack also resulted in the extensive destruction of residential buildings and shops.

The first information about the attack was shared by the City Atareb Facebook profile at 1:47 p.m. The images posted showed a cloud of dust rising over the neighbourhood and the aftermath of the strike, with extensive damage to civilian homes. The initial death toll was of three victims and “dozens” of injured. Videos and pictures of the column of smoke were shared by several users, along with images of the aftermath.

Further details of the strike emerged in the hours that followed, with the death toll reaching 11 victims, including from three to five children and two women, as reported by the Syrian Civil Defense and Syrian Network for Human Rights. Atareb24 claimed that the attack took the lives of 13 civilians. According to the Facebook posts by correspondent Mahmoud Ismail and Atareb, the number of casualties reportedly rose to 15.

Syrian Civil Defense and Syrian Network for Human Rights initially reported on their Twitter/X accounts that five civilians, including two children, were injured. Later Damas Post informed about the injury of 22 civilians, while Aljazeera_Mubasher correspondent and Facebook account “City Atareb” corroborated that the deadly attack claimed dozens of injured.

The list of names of 10 civilians killed was published by Atareb24 on Facebook at 17:46. They included women and children, but there was no further information on the details of the victims, except that one of them, Shahida Mohammad, was identified as “displaced”.

10 of the victims of the airstrike were identified as Fatima Mahmoud Shahoud, Abdulrahman Waheed, Waheed Hassan Agha, Mohammad Hassan Agha, Bayan Hassan Agha, Iman Hassan Agha, Rakan Hassan Agha, Hanan Al Atrash, Ahmad Mustafa Hallak, and Shahida Mohammad Nazeh. According to the Facebook post by Abd al Kadaer, three more victims were unidentified.

A Facebook account of the administration Al Ghad Al Mashreq Model Private School posted a heartfelt condolence message to the two brothers, Wahid and Hassan Agha,  for their great loss. Apparently, Hassan lost his five children, and Wahid lost one child in the attack. The post reads: “May Allah reward you greatly, comfort you, and forgive your dead. With hearts that believe in Allah’s will and destiny, and hearts filled with sadness and sympathy, the administration of Al-Ghad School and its staff extend their deepest condolences and sympathy to the brothers Wahid and Hassan Agha for their great loss. To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. O Allah, forgive them and have mercy on them in your spacious gardens, and grant patience to their families and loved ones. Our destiny is Allah, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.”

A Facebook post by Damas.post showed collapsed houses, a burning car, and rescuers carrying what appears to be a victim from the rubble, while other images showed firefighters battling fires started in the ruins of buildings and body bags lined up in the streets.

A Facebook user Amora Atarbia lamented the tragedy, writing: “Whoever thinks that #[al-Atareb] is bleeding is #wrong..🌿🌸 #[al-Atareb] donates blood #For a nation that has become without #blood…💔✌May God protect you, our Ataribs and all the liberated.” The post was accompanied by a distressing image of the four bags with bodies lying on the ground. Another image showed a small street, at the end of which a fire was burning.

Syrian journalist Ahmed Rahal documented the process of identifying the victims and burying them. His video showed an elderly man identifying his son in a body bag before he was supposed to be buried with other victims in what appears to be the local cemetery. The face of the elderly man was marked by pain and grief, and he was consoled by other people. He said the following in the video:

“A father identifies the body of his son, who was one of the 11 victims of the regime’s airstrikes on the center of the city of Atareb. All the bodies are currently being buried near the city of al-Atareb. The regime’s planes bombed the center of the city of al-Atareb and the Idlib countryside in response to the military operations carried out by the revolutionaries to liberate the country from the Russian and Iranian [forces].”

On its Twitter/X account @ajmubasher, Aljazeera_Mubasher shared a harrowing video of the immediate aftermath of the strike featuring huge billows of smoke rising over multiple damaged buildings and a road. Two Syrian Civil Defense volunteers are seen carrying the body of a victim.

Journalist Mahmoud Ismail filmed a video report standing in the middle of the road in Atareb. Severely destroyed buildings can be seen on both sides of the road. He said that the attack of warplanes on residential buildings led to at least one casualty.

Another Syrian journalist, Muhammad Abu Alhuda Alhomsi (@aboalhodaalhoms), also filmed a report from the place of the incident. He was pointing to a building that was razed to the ground and said the following: “A double raid by Russian warplanes on a residential complex in the al-Atareb neighborhood resulted in the killing of eight people, including children and women, and the wounding of a number of others. The Russian aircraft are still roaming the area and we must all take action.”

Where sources identified the belligerent, responsibility for the attack has been disputed. While the Syrian Network for Human Rights attributed the strike to the Syrian regime forces, most other sources claimed that the Russian and Syrian military aircrafts were perpetrators of the attack.

Atareb24 noted that the alleged airstrike with the use of five missiles occurred at 13:22. Facebook account “City Atareb” alleged that three vacuum missiles were used.

The incident occured at 13:22:00 local time.