Geolocation
Airwars assessment
26 to 30 civilians including five women were killed and dozens injured in airstrikes on Maskaneh, according to multiple sources – though reports were conflicted as to whether the attack was the work of Russia or the Assad regime.
The Shaam News Network reported that Russian aircraft committed an “appalling massacre” when warplanes targeted Maskaneh’s popular market “Bazaar” in two airstrikes.
Activists told SNN that the market was packed full of civilians, meaning that the death toll exceeded 30 and that many of the dead were unrecognisable due to deformation of bodies.
SNN noted that although Maskaneh is under IS control, the raids are only targeting markets and civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on the attack, initially putting the death toll at least 12 and then 30, including five women. They also noted that four IS militants were killed. Although they stated that “warplanes” were responsible, they did not say who they belonged to.
According to the IS agency Al A’maq, 24 were “dead and injured“, with most of them being women. They said that there had been three Russian raids.
But the Syrian Network for Human Rights, who put the death toll at 20, said that regime missiles were to blame.
The VDC also accounted for three unidentified victims:
Unidentified 1 – adult, male
Unidentified 2 – adult, male
Unidentified 3 – adult, male from Homs
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Family members (2)
Family members (2)
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Maskanah (مسكنة), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.964534, 38.036764. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (14) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (14) [ collapse]
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The market in Masskana following alleged Russian strikes, December 15th. (via SNN)
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In the aftermath of the airstrikes on Maskana. A truck which has been caught in the raid too. (via, SNN)
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A van destroyed by the airstrikes. (via, SNN)
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Graphic image of a deceased man. (via, SNN) -
An injured man in a medical facility. (via, SNN)
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The streets in the aftermath of the contested airstrike. (via, SNN)
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Damaged infrastructure. (via, SNN)
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Residential buildings destroyed by the airstrikes. (via, SNN)
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Walls of a building totally demolished by an airstrike. (via, SNN)
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The aftermath of a contested airstrike. (via, SNN)
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Civilians grieve for their loved ones. (via, SNN)
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A huge crater formed by the airstrikes. (via, SNN)
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Another photograph showing the size of the crater formed by the airstrikes. (via, SNN)
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More evidence to show the damage to the infrastructure. (via, SNN)
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
For December 15th-16th 2015, Russia reported that “In the course of the last 24 hours, aircraft of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic have performed 59 combat sorties engaging 212 objects in the Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Homs, Hasakah and Raqqah provinces… In the Aleppo province, a Su-24 bomber made a strike on an ISIS concentration of manpower and military hardware. Objective monitoring data confirmed elimination of not less than 10 militants and 3 automobile vehicles with large-caliber machine guns.”