Airwars assessment
Four civilians from the same family including two children were reported killed and four others including an infant were injured in alleged Israeli airstrikes, or Syrian regime rockets launched to respond to Israeli airstrikes in Kazo neighborhood in Hama on January 22nd, 2021.
The family is displaced from Idlib, and it seems that one of the children died of his injuries in the hospital, according to local sources. Two children were pulled out of the rubble and the family members were taken to Hama National Hospital. @SAMSyria0 said that the rocket hit a building was inhibited by a family of 10 members (parents, grandparents and 6 children).
As to what the Israelis targeted, Syrian Files said that attack targeted a surface-to-surface missiles factory run by the scientific research center. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that attack targeted five locations that had “members of the militia loyal to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah which were present within the regime’s military forces in the vicinity of Hama and its proximity in the region Al-Wusta from Syria, which led to its complete destruction.” Iran Wire Arabic said that the attack targeted “warehouses for storing weapons for Iranian militias in 3 locations, one of which is in the 47th Brigade of the 8th Division, and Iranian militias use it to store missiles, while the bombing also targeted a military center for developing weapons, especially missiles near scientific research in Masyaf, and a military headquarters for the Revolutionary Guard in the Umrah area of Ain Halakim district, west of Hama.”
As to who is responsible, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) affiliated with the Syrian regime reported that Israeli forces launched rockets targeting the surrounding of Hama governorate, and that the Syrian air defence responded to the attack. SANA then said that a family consisting of a father, a mother and two children were killed, and four others, an elderly person, a woman and two children were injured, and that three houses were demolished in the western side of Hama.
However, @Syriahr blamed the Syrian regime for the killing and injuring of the civilians saying that they were killed by rockets of the Syrian regime which were launched from Hama’s military airport, located meters away from Kazo neighborhood. The Observatory said that “the remnants of the missiles fired by the regime’s air defense brigades, in an attempt to counter the Israeli missiles, killed a family consisting of a woman, her husband and two children, in addition to the injury of three, who are an elderly man, two children and a woman, after the remnants of one of the missiles fell on the Kazo neighborhood in the northwestern part of Hama.
Sounds of explosions were also heard in Tartus, Banias and rural Damascus as a result of launching of air defence missiles.
@SAMSyria0 mentioned that ‘part of a military object, a missile, were found in Khirbet al-Wahhadneh area in Ajloun governorate in Jordan, in the sane time of the raid, and the sound of an explosion was reported in Irbid, north of Jordan, during the raid.’
@SAMSyria0 then tweeted images of what described ‘parts of the S200 long-range air defense missile near Yabroud in Damascus countryside, which is most likely the cause of the sound of the explosion that was heard in the vicinity of Damascus.’ Another missile was found in Ras Al-Ma’arra in Qalamoun area in rural Damascus.
@khalediskef also shared images describing them as ‘fragments of the missiles that were used during the Israeli raid on Hama, it was found that they were American GBU-39 guided bombs.’
Local sources also shared images of missiles in Tartus and the Observatory denied that there was an Israeli attack on Tartus, and said what was found was remnants of the regime’s air defence response to the attack in Hama.
According to Iran Wire, the attacks killed 40 Syrian regime members and 20 members of the Iranian militias, in addition to destroying the targeted sites.
The incident occured at approximately 4:00 am local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (8)
- Elham Al-Abdo 40 years old female killed
- Mahmoud Halabiya 4 years old male killed
- Karmo Al-Abdo 63 years old male 63 killed
- Munjid al-Abdo 10 years old male killed
- Noor Halabia 3 years old female injured
- Khawla Halabiya 3 months years old female injured
- Khaled Al-Abdo 26 years old male injured
- Yosra Al-Ahmad 50 years old female injured