Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In what was widely reported as a regime shelling, between five and eight civilians including four children died and dozens more were wounded in Al Ghantu.
According to LCCSY, “five civilians were martyred and dozens injured in the bombing by Assad’s forces, using rockets and heavy artillery shells, on the town of Al-Ghantu the northern countryside. This coincided with raids by military aircraft using guided missiles on the town.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported “at least four victims including three children died in an attack by government missiles and artillery shells Al Ghanto town”.
Zaher_Alhaseen put the death toll as high as eight, attributing the deaths to “shelling rocket and artillery attacks”.
According to Syrian Press Center “One girl and one woman were reportedly injured in the town of Al-Ghantu when regime targeted the town with artillery and rocket launchers.”
The Shaam News Network said: “Activists have pointed out that Assad’s forces stationed in the village of Akrad Dasniya targeted civilian houses in the town of Al-Ghantu with dozens of artillery shells and rocket launchers, which led to the death of five people, including four children.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Al Ghantu (الغنطو ), for which the generic coordinates are: 34.82179, 36.69605. 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 (1) [ collapse]
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'at least 4 victims including 3 children died in government missiles’ launchers’ missiles and artillery shells fired on Al Ghanto town in Homs governorate northern suburbs, December 5, 2016.' (via SN4HR)
Syrian Regime Assessment:
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any specific strikes between December 1st – 31st 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.”