Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least three and as many as 13 civilians, including two women, were killed and “dozens” others wounded, local media reported after the city of Arbeen, Damascus, was subject to air and artillery strikes. Sources were conflicted as to whether this was the work of Russia or the Assad regime.
The incident, described as a “massacre” by several sources inflicted heavy damage and destruction to large parts of the city leaving many civilians trapped under the rubble.
While reports spanned from three fatalities to 13, as reported by the Syrian Civil Defence, most sources reported the death of seven civilians that also counted two women.
For example, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SN4HR) reported “at least seven civilians, including two women, killed as Syrian regime warplanes fired missiles on Irbeen city in Eastern Ghouta east of Damascus suburbs, on February 6, 2018.”
The numbers of wounded spanned from two to “dozens” according to Abo Alhuda, who also mentioned that most of the wounded were children and women.
It should be noted that while all sources reported about airstrikes only, al-Arabiya mentioned both “artillery shelling and raids.”
Finally, it remains unclear who is to blame. Two sources, Abo Alhuda and SN4HR attributed blame to the Syrian regime while LCCSY pointed to Russian culpability.
The remaining sources did not apportion blame.
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 (13) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (7) [ collapse]
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Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between February 1st - 28th 2018.