Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

RS588

Incident date

February 9, 2016

Location

الغارية, Al Gariya, Daraa, Syria

Geolocation

32.6854754, 36.2402058 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Town level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

Three civilians including one woman and one child died in an alleged Russian airstrike on Al Gariya, according to local sources.

The VDC named one adult male victim of a Russian strike as  Khaled Ayed al Mefrej. All4Syria also attributed the incident to Russia, reporting that “Russian warplanes targeted the towns and cities (Naemeh – East Ghariyah – West Ghariyah – Alma – elSoura – elHerak) with more than 40 raid cluster bombs internationally forbidden, which led to the fall of a number of the victims were civilians, specifically in the east of Gharriyahl.

According to Daraa Martyrs, Khaled Ayed el Mffarej died in a strike by “warplanes”, though didn’t identify the planes. Syria 2011 named an additional two victims of a Russian raid.

 

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Yazan Ibrahim Harouni
Child male Named by Syria2011 killed
Fatima Mahmoud al-Ghazali
Adult female Named by Syria2011 killed

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the town of Al Gariya (الغارية), for which the generic coordinates are: 32.6854754, 36.2402058. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    3
  • (1 child1 woman)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military

Sources (4) [ collapse]

Russian Military Assessment:

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

Original strike reports

Russian Military

From February 4th – February 11th, Russia reported: “In the course of the last week, February 4-11, aircraft of the Russian aviation group in the Syrian Arab Republic have performed 510 combat sorties engaging 1,888 terrorists’ objects in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Homs, Hasakah and Raqqah.” It added: “Near al-Ghariyah al-Gharbiyah (Daraa province), a Su-34 bomber made a strike on an ISIS strong point. The direct hit of a guided munition caused complete destruction of the terrorists’ fortifications. Objective monitoring data confirmed elimination of 2 pieces of militants’ armored hardware.”

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    3
  • (1 child1 woman)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military

Sources (4) [ collapse]