Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In this major event, local sources reported that alleged Russian airstrikes killed between zero and 15 civilians, including three children, and wounded up to 24, as they struck the city of Binnish, Idlib.
While Qasioun News said that there were no reports of casualties, the remaining sources reported up to 15 fatalities, including children. Eight victims were identified by name.
There is doubt as to whether one of the victims, Mustafa Haj Kadour, was a civilian or an opposition fighter. The Violations Documentation Center classifies him as a civilian while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Firas Al Ahmad refer to him as a “fighter” or “rebel militant”.
According to Qasioun News’ correspondent, alleged Russian warplanes dropped cluster bombs. LCCSY added that Russian forces had used vacuum missiles in the strikes.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that Russia struck the “Mustafa Amouri School in the city of Binsh in the countryside Idlib, which led to the partial destruction of the building and exit from service on 10 December.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
- Mustafa Haj Kadour Adult male killed
- Ahmed Amouri Al Assaad Child male killed
- Ahmad Omar Fayyad Child male killed
- Ahmad Muhammad Haj Talib Child killed
- Abd al-Lateef Mostafa al-Omer Adult male killed
- Amer Hasan al-Saeid Adult male killed
- Ahmad Abd al-Lateef Qara Ali Adult male killed
- Abd al-Moeti Jomea Istaifi Adult male killed
Summary
Sources (32) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (18) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Binnish (بِنِّش), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.953725,36.711248. 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.”