Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Five civilians – a woman and her four children – died and dozens more were wounded in airstrikes on Khan Sheikhoun. Most sources blamed the Assad regime, though there were also allegations against Russia.
According to SMO, “Russian occupation aircraft on Sunday carried out a horrific massacre in the town of Khan Sheikhan in the village of Idlib, killing five people from one family and several others.”
Halab Today listed the names of the five victims and blamed Russia for the deaths.
But the majority of other reports attributed the fatalities to strikes by the regime.
There were also reports of barrels bombs being used. According to Syrian Press Centre, “helicopters used several barrels on the public square in the center of Khan Sheikun, where there are shops selling fuel, causing the outbreak of large fires and the death of three people on the spot. Others were injured”.
The Violations Documentation Center named five children killed “by Syrian Government and affiliated militias”.
There were also reports that Russia had struck a school – though no mention of civilian harm was made, and it’s unclear whether this was a separate incident.
The Syrian Network for Human reported: “suspected Russian warplanes missiles fired on Saleh Dado elementary School in Khan Sheikhoun city in Idlib governorate southern suburbs, damaging its building and furniture and rendering it inoperable”.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (5)
Summary
Sources (21) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (5) [ collapse]
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'five civilians (a mother and her four children) died due to government warplanes missiles fired on Khan Sheikhoun city in Idlib governorate southern suburbs, November 13, 2016.' (via SN4HR)
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'Image of a child wounded in government warplanes missiles fired on Khan Sheikhoun city in Idlib governorate southern suburbs, November 13.' (via SN4HR)
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A wounded child following an alleged Russian strike on Khan Sheikhoun, Nov 13th (via SMO)
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Khan Sheikhoun (خان شيخون ), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.44208, 36.65095. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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”.