Airwars

Incident Code

RS272

Previous code

R221

Incident date

December 13, 2015

Location

دوما, Douma, Damascus, Syria

Geolocation

33.5714804, 36.4033699 Note: The accuracy of this location is to City level. Continue to map

Web link

Airwars assessment

Between 42 and 70 civilians, including five women nine to 20 children were killed and between 24 and 250 others wounded in aerial and missile bombardments of Douma and nearby locations in eastern Ghouta, Damascus, according to multiple sources.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that shelling by the regime killed 38, including five women and nine children.

The White Helmets produced a summary of airstrikes in Hamouriya, Sakba, Kafrbatna and Jissrain but did not specify who the warplanes belonged to. It referred to a “deranged aerial and missile bombardment on residential neighbourhoods…in conjunction with the flight of military aircraft“. According to the summary, Hamouriya suffered both an air raid and a missile attack causing fires and destruction to civilian buildings. In total the White Helmets put the death toll at 41, including nine children killed “as a result of the bombing and military aviation, heavy artillery, rockets and cluster bombs and mortar shells at residential neighborhoods in the city.”

All4Syria said that Russia carried out the raids, killing and and wounding civilians. Local activists told the organisation that Russian warplanes dropped four missiles targeting neighbourhoods in the town of Hamouriya, killing three civilians and wounding others. They also said that Douma was bombarded with rockets and cluster bombs, killing a girl named as Dala’a Kassem Al Bisoani and wounding others. Ten children in total were injured – some critically – in a raid targeting a school in Kafr Batna. They also reported the fire at the warehouse in Sakba, which they said was targeted by regime forces with heavy artillery, reporting the injury of some civilians.

The Shaam News Network said Russian and regime warplanes were responsible, and that there had been more than 70 raids targeting civilians’ homes and schools. It put the death toll at 70 including more than 20 children, with 250 wounded – 30 of whom had lost limbs. A video posted by SNN was entitled “The Russian enemy turns schools into slaughterhouses of children“.

Douma, Samba, Jissrain, Ain Tarma, Zamalka, Jobar and Hamouriya were “all areas under risk of full annihilation,” SNN concluded, but the harshest massacres were in the city of Douma it said, which was targeted by the Russian aviation in a barrage of missiles and cluster bombs which hit a primary school and adjacent residential buildings.

Other sources also said that both Russia and the regime were responsible: the Douma Coordinating Committee put the death toll at more than 40, with dozens wounded. The Syrian Press Center said 46 died and more than 200 were wounded; Eldorar reported that 45 died, including children, dozens were injured and medical facilities were put out of service, blaming “warplanes” and the Assad regime; Madardaily quoted information supplied by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: at least 28 civilians killed, including two children and dozens wounded – in bombing by regime rockets cities in Douma and Sakba, adding that in the west of Damascus regime helicopters dropped 34 explosive barrels on the city of Darya, killing at five people, while at least eight, including a child died and 35 were injured when about 50 shells fell on areas of Damascus and its suburbs.

But Ennabbaldi stated that only the regime was responsible for the attacks, putting the total killed at 40.

White Helmets reported seven unidentified victims.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Tasnim Alsa’our

Child named by White Helmets killed

Rahaf Abdul Aziz

Child named by White Helmets killed

Marwa Saeed Ghazi

Child named by White Helmets killed

Ghaida al Salahi

Child named by White Helmets killed

Hadeel Hayrab

Child named by White Helmets killed

Noor Al Msalmanah

Child named by White Helmets killed

Maysa Al Madder

Child named by White Helmets killed

Rayyan Al Shawa

Child named by White Helmets killed

Fariss Al Hammouri

Child named by White Helmets killed

Ahmed Al Tabbakh

Age unknown male named by White Helmets killed

Mohammed Albawabiji

Age unknown male named by White Helmets killed

Mohammed Al Haffar

Age unknown male named by White Helmets killed

Mazen al Saleh