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Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: R1504a)
On November 20, 2016, up to 16 civilians, including a family of six with four children, were reportedly killed by aerial shelling containing chlorine gas in the al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo. Local sources differ on whether the strike can be attributed to Russia or the Syrian regime.
SMART News Agency reported six civilians were killed and 30 victims were injured in the incident and that some victims were treated at the Children’s Hospital while others were tranferred to alternative hospitals.
SPM News, amongst other sources, reported that explosive barrels containing chlorine gas were fired from helicopters during the night between November 19 and 20, and the family of six, four children and their parents, were killed by suffocation. SPM News quoted Ibrahim Abu Al-Laith, director of the media office of the Civil Defense in Aleppo, who reported that the incident took place at 1 am and 25 people were injured in addition to the family of six who were killed.
A local correspondent for Al Jazeera in reported that the four children who were killed had been sleeping when the incident took place.
All4Syria reported the incident and shared a video from social media showing the bodies of the four children. The graphic video showed “traces of froth on their faces that came out of their mouths and noses as a result of inhaling poison gas.” @revo_spring also shared an image of the children’s bodies.
While the majority of the sources put the death toll at six, @MoAl Hlukhatieb reported that 15 people had been killed by suffocation and @ahdath1 mentioned as many as 16 were killed in the incident.
Most sources attributed the incident to the Syrian regime. However, one source, SPM News, reported that both the Syrian regime and Russia were to blame.