Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RS3299

Incident date

March 18, 2018

Location

حرستا, Harasta, Damascus, Syria

Geolocation

33.55869, 36.36515 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Town level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Seven or eight people, including two women and two children, were killed in air and artillery strikes on the city of Harasta on March 18th, 2018, according to several sources. The belligerent remains contested, with sources pointing both at Russia and the Syrian regime.

Syriahr reported the incident occurred in the evening, as warplanes carried out “several raids on areas in Harasta city”, which “coincided with the launch of more than 35 missiles believed to be ground-to-ground by the regime forces.”

While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned four casualties, Harasta City and the Violations Documentation Centre Syria reported the names of seven victims, including two women and two children. One female victim reported by Harasta City remained unidentified, which makes it a possibility that this woman’s name was later published by the VDC.

@HalabTodayTV tweeted that “two children and two women are martyred due to shelling with surface-to-surface missiles on Harasta city.”

The incident occured in the evening.

The victims were named as:

Adult male killed
Adult female wife of Abu Ismail Wehbe and mother of Ismail Where killed
4 years old male son of Alaa Al-Jabba Ji killed
Adult female Wife of Abu Mansour Arab killed
8 years old male killed

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the town of Harasta (حرستا), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.55869, 36.36515. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike and/or Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    7 – 8
  • (2–3 children2 women3 men)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (11) [ collapse]

Russian Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military
  • Russian Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Syrian Regime Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Syrian Regime
  • Syrian Regime position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike and/or Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    7 – 8
  • (2–3 children2 women3 men)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (11) [ collapse]