Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RS1703

Incident date

November 27, 2016

Location

نبل , Nabil, Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria

Geolocation

36.376549, 36.991322 Note: The accuracy of this location is to City level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

In what may have been a friendly fire incident, committed by the regime, or by Russia, an unspecified number of people were killed and wounded in Nabil, according to sources on the ground.

HNN reported “four air raids [three using vacuum missiles and one cluster bombs] by Russian planes on the pro regime villages of Nabil and Al Zahra. News indicates that there are a number of killed.”

Umyyapress provide the most detail, reporting: “a warplane – believed to be Russian – targeted the northern towns of Nabel and Zahra loyal to the Assad regime in the northern countryside of Aleppo, Sunday [Nov 27th], which led to the deaths of a number of dead and wounded, according to sources loyal to the Assad regime.”

There were conflicting reports about the source of air raids that hit areas in the two towns, sources said that Russian airliner struck at nine thirty in the night with a number of air raids, while other sources said that the flight is unidentified.

“According to pro pages, the two towns were targeted with four air and cluster air strikes, resulting in civilian casualties. According to these pages, Zahra Hospital announced the need for blood units from all factions, calling for the need to donate blood.”

The local time of the incident is unknown.

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the city of Nabil, Aleppo (نبل ), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.376549, 36.991322. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 2
  • Civilians reported injured
    0–2
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]

Russian Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military
  • Russian Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Original strike reports

Russian Military

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.”

Additionally, Russia reported that its air forces have carried out strikes in Aleppo during November and December 2016.

Syrian Regime Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Syrian Regime
  • Syrian Regime position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 2
  • Civilians reported injured
    0–2
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]