Airwars assessment
Up to four civilians, including as many as three children, were killed and as many as ten more people were wounded as alleged Russian warplanes struck the town of Ma’arat Harma, Idlib, local media reported.
In this event, described by many as a “massacre”, residential buildings were struck and left in complete rubble with numerous civilians trapped underneath.
The death toll spanned from two to four, the latter reported by Edlib Media Center, who after initially reporting one fatality, later amended that number to four.
Three child victims were identified by name by Local Coordination Committees of Syria and the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Reports generally agreed that two or three of the fatalities were children, hereof two siblings.
However, while the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SN4HR) reported that an eight-year-old girl was killed together with her infant brother, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that three children died, including two brothers. It is therefore unclear whether all of the identified victims were siblings of just the girl and baby boy who shared their last name.
The number of wounded spanned from two to as many as ten.
Finally, all known sources pointed unanimously to Russia as responsible.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
- Shahd Isam al Rayya 8 years old female killed
- Issam al Raya 3 months years old male killed
- Ahmed Ziad Al-Saleh 2 years old killed
Summary
Sources (18) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (9) [ collapse]
Russian Armed Forces Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between February 1st - 28th 2018.