(Previous Incident Codes: R3098RS3303)

At least seven civilians, including a child and two women, were killed in air and/or artillery strikes on the city of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, March 19th 2018, as reported by local sources. Reports blamed both the Syrian regime and Russia for the incident.

The Violations Documentation Center (VDC) of Syria documented the names of seven victims. Step News Agency stated that Russian warplanes launched more than forty airstrikes in the morning and that the death toll had risen to nine civilians.

The Syrian Civil Defence spoke of more than 50 airstrikes, in addition to artillery and missile shelling. The number of injured is unclear. Several sources reported the use of white phosphorus. @Omar_Madaniah, for example, published footage of alleged white phosphorus use after the strike. @MediaCenterfr mentioned the use of explosive barrels from helicopters.

@SyriaCiviDefe tweeted that “civil defence teams were able to recover a woman alive from the rubble of her destroyed house by airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods in Douma, Eastern Ghouta.” The SCD also reported that their teams were directly targeted by artillery shells when trying to evacuate a number of wounded due to earlier air and artillery strikes.

Two White Helmets volunteers were reportedly injured when the roof of a house collapsed on them when they were searching for survivors.