Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least four but up to 11 civilians, including one woman and two female children, were killed and several wounded as Saqba in eastern Ghouta, Damascus was subject to intense air and artillery shelling, local media reported, though it was unclear whether Russia or the Syrian regime was to blame.
Al-Jazeera reported how both Syrian and Russian air forces had “launched dozens of raids on residential neighborhoods in the eastern cities of Ghouta”, including Saqba.
Saqba was in large parts left in rubble as it reportedly was struck by both explosive barrels from helicopters, missiles and even cluster bombs as reported by Rajaa. Also, al-Jazeera mentioned artillery shelling.
The death toll spanned from “at least four” as reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SN4HR) to as many as 11 as reported by Dirar Khattab and @LaLaKdaho. The latter identified 11 fatalities by name and age, hereof two female children and one woman.
According to Step News Agency, who blamed Assad helicopters for dropping barrel bombs, the incident wounded at least two civilians.
Additionally, the strikes inflicted great material damage on civilian properties. Al-Jazeera reported that the shelling “led to the suspension of the field hospital in the city of Saqba”.
While few sources pointed to respectively exclusive Russia or the Syrian regime culpability, the large majority of reports pointed to shared Russian/Assad responsibility.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the strikes may have taken place the previous day, on Monday, February 19th. While all sources reported from the incident on Tuesday 20th, HalabTodayTV referred to it as occuring “yesterday” (Monday 19th).
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Family members (3)
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 (15) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (12) [ collapse]
-
Aftermath of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via Damascus Media Center)
-
Aftermath of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via Damascus Media Center)
-
Aftermath of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via Damascus Media Center)
-
Aftermath of the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via Damascus Media Center)
-
A civilian is being carried away after being wounded by the contested shelling of Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via SN4HR)
-
29-year old Hisham Eid, working as a nurse, was reportedly among the victims of the contested strikes in Saqba, Damascus, February 20th, 2018 (via SN4HR)
Russian Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Russia has not reported any strikes between February 1st - 28th 2018.