Atarib market bombing Atarib market massacre | |
---|---|
Part of Russian intervention in Syria | |
Location of Atarib in Syria | |
Location | Atarib, Aleppo Governorate, Syria |
Coordinates | 36°08′N36°49′E / 36.133°N 36.817°E |
Date | 13 November 2017 ~2:00 PM [1] (local time) |
Target | Free Syrian police station |
Attack type | Airstrike |
Weapons | Aerial bombs |
Deaths | 84 [2] |
Injured | 150 [2] |
Perpetrators | Russian Air Force [2] |
Motive | unknown |
The Atarib market massacre, Atarib market bombings or 2017 Atarib airstrike were three [1] aerial bombardments on a marketplace in the Syrian rebel-held town of Atarib in the Aleppo Governorate of Syria perpetrated on 13 November 2017, during the Syrian Civil War. These airstrikes hit a commercial street with a market and a police station. The bombings killed 84 civilians, including six women and five children, and injured another 150 people. [2] Atarib was part of the "Safe Zone" established in September 2017. [1]
"Under the laws of war, police and police stations are presumptively civilian objects unless the police are taking a direct part in the hostilities", Human Rights Watch said. [1] Eyewitness reports claimed that the entire market, containing 100 shops, was destroyed in the explosions. They damaged or destroyed an area of approximately 5,000 sq metres. Weapons used were the unguided OFAB-500 fragmentation bomb, and the BETAB-500 unguided bunker buster bomb. [3]
On 6 March 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council published a public report confirming that these airstrikes were perpetrated by the Russian military. A Russian fixed-wing aircraft using unguided weapons, including blast weapons, were used against this location. The report concluded that using such heavy weapons on densely populated civilian areas may amount to a war crime. [2] [4]
Between 14:07 and 14:11, the Atarib market and police station were targeted by three air strikes resulting in the death of at least 84 people and injuring of 150.
On 6 March 2018, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic published a report on the attack, saying it was carried out by the Russian Air Force and may constitute a war crime.
According to the Commission's report, "early warning observers monitored the take-off of a fixed-wing aircraft, whose pilots communicated in Russian, from Hemeimeem airbase at 1:37 p.m. and tracked the aircraft going south and then to the northeast all the way to Atarib where it arrived at 2:07 p.m". The report said the attack "may account to a war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in death and injury to civilians." [2] [4] [5]
"Under the laws of war, police and police stations are presumptuously civilian objects unless the police are taking a direct part in the hostilities", Human Rights Watch said. [1] Eyewitness reports claimed that the entire market, containing 100 shops, was destroyed in the explosions. [6] They damaged or destroyed an area of approximately 5,000 sq metres. Weapons used were the unguided OFAB-500 fragmentation bomb, and the BETAB-500 unguided bunker buster bomb. [3]
Two previous attacks had targeted the market on 25 July 2016 (8 dead) and 24 April 2014 (31 dead).
Atarib, also known as Atharib or Athareb, is a town in western Aleppo countryside, Aleppo Governorate, Syria. Located 25 kilometres west of the city of Aleppo and 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Reyhanlı in Turkish-administered Hatay Province, it is the regional center of Atarib District. In the 2004 census, the town of Atarib had a population of 10,657.
War crimes in the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. A United Nations report published in August 2014 stated that "the conduct of the warring parties in the Syrian Arab Republic has caused civilians immeasurable suffering". Another UN report released in 2015 stated that the war has been "characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law" and that "civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties". Various countries have prosecuted several war criminals for a limited number of atrocities committed during the Syrian civil war.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 22 August 2011 to investigate human rights violations during the Syrian Civil War to establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to violations and crimes and, where possible, to identify those responsible to be held accountable with a future prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. The Commission posts regular updates via its official Twitter page.
A barrel bomb is an improvised unguided bomb, sometimes described as a flying IED. They are typically made from a large barrel-shaped metal container that has been filled with high explosives, possibly shrapnel, oil or chemicals as well, and then dropped from a helicopter or aeroplane. Due to the large amount of explosives, their poor accuracy, and indiscriminate use in populated civilian areas, the resulting detonations have been devastating. Critics have characterised them as weapons of terror and illegal under international conventions.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from August to December 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
On 30 September 2015, Russia launched a military intervention in Syria after a request by the government of Bashar al-Assad for military support in its fight against the Syrian opposition and Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian civil war. The intervention was kick-started by extensive air strikes across Syria, focused on attacking opposition strongholds of the Free Syrian Army along with the rebel coalition of the Revolutionary Command Council and Sunni militant groups under the Army of Conquest coalition. In line with Syrian government propaganda which denounces all armed resistance to its rule as "terrorism"; Syrian military chief Ali Abdullah Ayoub depicted Russian airstrikes as facilitating their campaign against terrorism. Russian special operations forces, military advisors and private military contractors like the Wagner Group were also sent to Syria to support the Assad regime, which was on the verge of collapse. Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement had been heavily invested in providing Assad with diplomatic cover and propping up the Syrian Armed Forces with billions of dollars of arms and equipment. In December 2017, the Russian government announced that its troops would be deployed to Syria permanently.
War crimes and human rights violations, committed by all warring parties, have been widespread throughout the Yemeni civil war. This includes the two main groups involved in the ongoing conflict: forces loyal to the current Yemeni president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and Houthis and other forces supporting Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni president. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also carried out attacks in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States and other nations, has also been accused of violating human rights and breaking international law, especially in regards to airstrikes that repeatedly hit civilian targets.
The Aleppo bombings were intense bombardments on both rebel and government-held areas in the city of Aleppo, Syria starting in late April 2016. Some rebel shelling also hit a Kurdish-held part of the city. The bombings decreased in intensity after 55 days when a temporary truce was established. However, the bombings continued through July.
A United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy unloading at a warehouse along Highway 60 in the rebel-held city of Urum al-Kubra, approximately 15 kilometers (9 mi) west of the city of Aleppo in the Aleppo Governorate of Syria, was destroyed during a late night attack on 19 September 2016, during the Syrian Civil War. The UN accused the Syrian government of a carrying out the attack in a "meticulously planned and ruthlessly carried out" air strike, first dropping barrel bombs, then rocketing the convoy, and finally strafing survivors with machine gun fire. In all, fourteen aid workers were killed in the strike.
On 16 March 2017, an airstrike by the United States Armed Forces killed up to 49 people in the rebel-held village of al-Jinah near Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and local officials reported that the building struck was a mosque filled with worshipers. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of SOHR, said the structure was a mosque which held over 300 people at the time of the strike. In May 2017, a US Central Command investigation determined that the building was indeed part of a mosque-complex. The US military had originally said the structure bombed was an al-Qaeda meeting place that was not a mosque itself but was next to a mosque, which was undamaged. In September 2017, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria concluded that "United States forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law." The UN commission's findings did not support the U.S. claim that an al-Qaeda meeting was taking place. Investigations by Human Rights Watch and Forensic Architecture also did not find any evidence of an al-Qaeda meeting.
The 2017 Mosul airstrike, was an American bombing in the al-Aghawat al-Jadidah neighborhood in western Mosul on 17 March 2017 that killed between 200 and 300 civilians. The incident was the largest single death toll inflicted by a coalition air strike since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces.
During the Syrian Civil War, Russian and Syrian government forces have conducted a campaign that has focused on the destruction of hospitals and medical facilities within areas not under the control of the Syrian government. Russian and Syrian officials have repeatedly denied deliberately targeting medical facilities.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from September to December 2017. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
On 29 September 2017, aircraft attacked Armanaz and killed at least 35 people, including at least 3 children, according to 5 witnesses and photos and video footage analyzed by Human Rights Watch. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the death toll included 8 children and 8 women.
The siege of Eastern Ghouta was a siege that was laid by Syrian Government forces in April 2013, to the area in eastern Ghouta held by anti-government forces since November 2012, during the Syrian civil war. The cities and villages under siege were Duma, Mesraba, Arbin, Hamouria, Saqba, Modira, Eftreis, Jisrin, as well as suburbs of Damascus Beit Sawa, Harasta, Zamalka, Ein Tarma, Hizzah and Kafr Batna. By 2016, around 400,000 people were trapped in an area just over 100 square kilometres in size, thus with a population density around 4,000 inhabitants/km2.
Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have committed or been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the aiding and abetting of crimes by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These have included murder, torture, terror, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, enforced disappearance, child abductions, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, inhumane acts, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.
The Hass refugee camp bombing was an aerial bombardment of a refugee camp in the Syrian opposition-held town of Hass in the Idlib Governorate of Syria, which has been deemed a war crime by Human Rights Watch. It was perpetrated on 16 August 2019, at 7:25 p.m. local time, during the Syrian civil war. The bombing killed 20 civilians, including a pregnant woman, and injured another 52 people.
The Maarrat al-Numan market bombing or Maarrat al-Numan market massacre was a war crime through an aerial bombardment of a marketplace and the surrounding houses in the Syrian opposition-held town of Ma'arrat al-Numan in the Idlib Governorate of Syria. It was perpetrated on 22 July 2019, from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. local time, during the Syrian Civil War. The bombing killed 43 civilians, including three girls, and injured another 109 people. At least two four-storey residential buildings and 25 shops were destroyed. A nearby school, located some 700 meters from the market, was damaged.
On 3 March 2022, 47 people were killed in a series of airstrikes in Chernihiv by Russian forces during the siege of the city, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described the strikes as a war crime.