Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least one civilian was killed and others were injured in airstrikes launched against the town of Arbin in Eastern Ghouta – though sources were conflicted as to whether this was the work of Russia or the Assad regime.
The series of three airstrikes launched against the residential areas were part of an escalated attack across the Damascus countryside and resulted in the Directorate of Education suspending school for two days in eastern Ghouta because of safety concerns for the students.
While the majority of sources did not identify who was responsible for the airstrikes, those that did were conflicted as to who was the culprit. Both Al Jazeera and Baladi News pointed to Syrian regime warplanes as the the perpetrators of the attack, yet the Local Coordination Committee of Syria identified Russian planes.
A video posted by Braa Abo Yhea showed the exact moment the airstrike struck Arbin and the aftermath, including damage to buildings, homes and local shops.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Arbin (عربين), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.538143, 36.364331. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (13) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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A member of the White Helmets runs into the scene to look for injured civilians in the aftermath of an alleged Russian and Syrian regime raid on Arbin, 8th November 2016. (via @SCDrifdimashq)
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”.