Airwars assessment
A number of civilians were killed and wounded in an airstrike on Kafr Batna, Eastern Ghouta, according to local media – though reports were conflicted as to which belligerent was responsible for the event.
Similar to most other sources reporting on this event, @kafrbatna2011 did not identify the warplanes responsible, they did however report that it was a guided missile: “the warplanes targeted the centre of the city of Kafr Batna by airstrike with a guided missile, resulting in a large number are wounded.”
LCCSY directly attributed responsibility for the event to Russia, stating that there were “13 martyrs in Damascus and its countryside, most of them killed in the Russian raids on Kafr Batna and Saqba.”
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pointed out that both regime forces and Russian warplanes were operating around Eastern Ghouta that day [17th Nov]. However, they do point towards Russia being responsible for the incident in Kafr Batna: “The regime forces and warplanes shelled areas in the city of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta, which killed two persons including a child, and injured several others. Also the warplanes bombed areas in the city of Saqba and the towns of Hammuriyyeh and Kafr Batna in the Eastern Ghouta, which killed 4 persons and injured others in Saqba.”
Whilst the sources indicate a death toll of between four and 13, none of them attributed a death toll that is specific to the airstrike on Kafr Batna alone.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (8) [ collapse]
Russian Armed Forces 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”.