Airwars assessment
As many as five civilians, including two women and a child, were killed and dozens of civilians, mostly women and children, were injured following alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on the town of Ma’ar Shmareen, Idlib Governorate on December 16th, 2019, according to multiple sources. The names of those killed and injured indicate several of the victims came from two families.
Two sources, The Syrian Network for Human Rights and The Syrian Human Rights Committee, reported that the girl Ikhlas Abdul Aziz al Mustafa and the women Jamila Jum’a al Mustafa and Fatima Mahmoud al Mustafa were killed. Additional sources also reported the death of two women and a child but did not provide their identities. The Syrian Human Rights Committee reported that five people were killed in total, in what it called a “Russian bombing”.
Dozens of civilians were reported to have been injured. Twitter user, @iA6TWquU3yvk2RK, named some of them as: Khadija Al-Mustafa, 4, Baraa Al-Mustafa, 25, Zainab Al-Hassan, 6, and Badi’ Al-Hassan, 7. Those injured were said to be mostly women and children.
The majority of the sources reported that planes of the Russian airforce carried out the strikes. A correspondent for Al-Jisr said Russian warplanes had used “vacuum missiles” to target civilian houses in the town which led to “widespread destruction in the area”.
Four sources said they were unable to identify whether the aircraft were Russian or Syrian. Two sources said Syrian regime helicopters carried out the strike using barrel bombs. Zaman Al Wasl reported the barrel bombs had targeted a secondary school in the town.
In a video posted to the organisations’ Facebook page, members of the Syrian White Helmets could be seen recovering the body of a young girl from a field.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (5)
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (22) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (14) [ collapse]
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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Aftermath of alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on Ma’ar Shmareen on December 16th, 2019 (via Syrian Observatory for Human Rights).
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An image that accompanied a Tweet about alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on the town of Ma’ar Shmareen, Idlib Governorate on December 16th, 2019. (Uploaded by @anasanas84)