Geolocation
Airwars assessment
One was killed and several civilians were wounded – including women and children – in a continuous air and artillery bombardment which hit the residential neighbourhood of Arbeen, local media reported. Sources were conflicted as to who was to blame. Many blamed Russia, some blamed the Syrian regime and others remained impartial.
@syriahr – who blamed Russia – put the number of wounded at 17, while Alghadsouri reported that one civilian was killed.
Civilian deaths were reported by Syrian Press Centre who added that “The cities of Arbeen and Madera were shelled overnight and were hit by an air strike that resulted in the death of two people and the injury of many in an initial toll.” It is unclear where the victims died.
The Civil Defence teams distributed many wounded to medical centres.
Additionally there was “extensive destruction in the targeted buildings and two fires, caused by five air strikes by Russian warplanes targeting residential areas in the city.”
@bassam-jaara reported that Arbeen was struck with 16 raids. Shaam put the figure as high as 30 raids.
Surface-to-surface missiles were also reportedly used in the bombardment.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Arbeen (عربين), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.538143, 36.364331. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (19) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (4) [ collapse]
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Arbeen, 2nd January 2018. (via @syrian-coalition)
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
In an article published on January 30th 2018 Russia reported: ”crews of the Aerospace Forces of Russia had successfully performed 34,561 sorties. The Minister of Defence pointed out that the Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, as well as the Su-24M, Su-34 and Su-35S short-range aircraft had proved to be efficient. The Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers delivered 66 strikes by cruise missiles, and each eliminated the assigned target. The Minister of Defence also stated that Russian UAVs provided complete control over the whole Syrian territory. The head of the military department paid attention to the significant contribution to the achievement of the operation made by the Navy. The naval surface forces carried out 171 combat missions. The ships and submarines carried out 100 high-precision attacks with the Kalibr cruise missiles. For the first time, the aircraft carrier "Admiral of the Soviet Union Fleet Kuznetsov" participated in combat operations. Due to high professional skills of deck aircraft, 1,252 terrorist objects were eliminated.”