Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RS1778

Incident date

December 8, 2016

Location

حي الكلاسة, al-Kalassa, Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria

Geolocation

36.1923129, 37.1477151 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Local sources reported that up to nine civilians were killed and a number were left wounded following air and artillery strikes on of al-Kalassa, Aleppo – though sources were conflicted as to whether Russia or the Assad regime were to blame.

Several sources, such as HalabTodayTV’s correspondent, reported that helicopters dropped bombs containing chlorine gas, suffocating “dozens”, including children and women, including two named twin boys. However, the sources did not specify whether these people were killed.

@ZAshshmmre tweeted that a total of 61 civilians were killed and another 120 were wounded during attacks in Aleppo on December 8th 2016, saying that most of these were from the shelling in al-Kalassa.

Moreover, one source, @HalabTodayTV, suggested that the attack also included ground-launched explosives, reporting that al-Kalassa was exposed to “heavy artillery shelling and rocket attacks”.

Some sources pointed to the Syrian regime while another pointed to Russia as the responsible. The majority of sources did not identify the culprit.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Family members (2)

Child Twins
Child Twins

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    2 – 9
  • Civilians reported injured
    2
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected attackers
    Syrian Regime, Russian Military

Sources (14) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]

  • The twin brothers Yousef and Yasin suffocated as a result of the helicopter bombing of Al-Kalassa, Aleppo on 8 December, 2016 (via @abo3ker)
  • Image associated with a tweet reporting of several incidents in Aleppo, including the one in Al-Kalassa, Aleppo on 8 December, 2016 (via @DrZaineddin)
  • Helicopters reportedly targeted the neighborhood of al-Kalassa, Aleppo, with chlorine gas on 8 December, 2016 (via @HalabTodayTV)

Syrian Regime Assessment:

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

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 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.”

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

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    2 – 9
  • Civilians reported injured
    2
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected attackers
    Syrian Regime, Russian Military

Sources (14) [ collapse]