Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between one and three civilians were killed during an airstrike on Zardana, Idlib, according to local media reports – though it was unclear whether Russia or the Assad regime were responsible.
Idlib Media Centre, who stated that one woman died in the attack, reported that it was because of a “missile launched by Russian occupation planes”.
The source LCCSY, however, reported that “Assad’s warplanes stepped up raids on the cities and towns of the southern countryside”, including Zardana.
Whilst most sources corroborate the claim that one woman was killed and a number of others were injured in the attack, one source – a tweet from Mohammed Alshekh – stated that three civilians had died in Zardana.
The was no further available information with regard to how many civilians were wounded in the incident.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (10) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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'A photo showing the location hit by the missile launched by Russian occupaton planes in Zardana in the northern Idlib countryside which resulted in the martyrdom of a woman and the injury of others.' (via Idlib Media Center)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Zardana (زردنا), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.045776,36.750791. 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 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.”