Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Nine named civilians, including up to five children and one woman, were killed and between 15 and 20 others were wounded in alleged Russian or Assad regime airstrikes against the village of Deir al Sharqi. Sources that reported low casualty estimates, including the five deaths by Syrian News Network, acknowledged that these were the initial death tolls and many civilians were in a critical condition or still buried in the rubble, meaning the death toll was expected to rise.
A consensus emerged among local sources, with only one dissent, that Russian planes were responsible for the airstrikes against Deir al Sharqi. The majority of sources, including Baladi News and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, attributed the airstrikes to Russia. However, Elkhabar News reported that both Russian and Syrian planes struck the tomb of the caliph and did not ditinguish which was responsible for the casualties.
According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, some of the citizens that were struck were gathered for a funeral and burial ceremony.
In addition, Syrian Press Center said that the airstrikes also struck a bread distribution center in a popular market. Those killed were both citizens of the village and displaced persons that had fled violence to settle in Deir al Sharqi. The airstrikes destroyed both the tomb of Caliph Omar bin Abdul Aziz and multiple civilian properties.
Local sources, including Elkhabar, reported that at this time, most areas of the Idlib province were under control of opposition factions and had experienced increasing escalation by the Syrian government forces. Following the airstrikes, civil defense teams removed the dead and injured from the debris and injured civilians were transported for medical treatment in neighboring towns.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Deir al Sharqi (دير الشرقي), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.603718, 36.738955. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (25) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (4) [ collapse]
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Unexploded munitions from alleged Russian airstrikes on Deir al Sharqi on March 29, 2017 (via SOHR)