Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least four and as many as 14 civilians including ar least one woman and one child were killed and several others wounded in alleged Russian or regime airstrikes on Saqba, eastern Ghouta, Damascus, local media reported.
The strikes in Saqba were part of a widespread intensified shelling of multiple residential neighbourhoods in eastern Ghouta on February 19th, local media reported. Orient News described the shelling as a “genocide.”
While several sources reported four fatalities, including one woman, other reports spanned from nine to 14 civilian deaths, the highest reported by Smart News Agency. Zaman al-Wasl and Ghouta_GMC identified 14 victims by name, hereof two women and one child. Besides the child, none of the remaining victims’ ages were specified.
Sources were conflicted in terms of culpability. While several, including Smart News Agency and Orient News pointed to both the Syrian regime and Russia, the Syrian Network for Human Rights and Baladi News blamed only the Syrian regime. Baladi News’ correspondent reported that “regime warplanes” launched more than 60 rockets.
According to Smart News Agency’s report, it is likely that both belligerents were responsible. The news channel cited the Civil Defence, who wrote on Facebook that Russian airstrikes had killed four civilians while adding that additionally ten civilians had been killed just hours previously by regime warplanes.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Saqba (سقبا), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.519286, 36.382427. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (17) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (9) [ collapse]
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
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A wounded child, victim of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 19th, 2018(via Damascus Media Center)
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One of the many wounded of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 19th, 2018 (via Smart news Agency)
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One of the many wounded of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 19th, 2018 (via Smart news Agency)
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One of the many wounded of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 19th, 2018 (via Smart news Agency)
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One of the many wounded of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 19th, 2018 (via Smart news Agency)
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between February 1st - 28th 2018.