Airwars assessment
The towns of Jisr al-Shughour and Frayka in the western Idlib countryside, Syria, were hit by the airstrike with the reported use of a vacuum missile shortly before 2:53 PM on Saturday, November 30th, 2024. The attack with contested responsibility reportedly perpetrated by the Syrian regime forces and/or Russian military led to the death of one man, the injury of three civilians, including a man, and the destruction of civilian homes.
Ahmad Al-Ali was killed by the artillery shelling in Frayka. On Twitter/X, the Syrian Network (@snhr) and @SyriaCivilDefe reported on his death, but at the time of writing, there has been no further information regarding Al-Ali or the incident.
The Twitter/X account of the Syrian Civil Defense (@SyriaCivilDefe) also reported on the three civilians who were injured in Jisr al-Shughour. Their post was accompanied by four photos that showed the extent of the material damage. The second photo with the post showed an injured man, roughly between 40 and 50 years of age, lying on a hospital bed and receiving treatment. The man is pictured holding his phone in his bloodied left hand, whilst his right arm is bandaged up and in a sling.
A Facebook post by “Bridge lens” included a photograph of the aftermath. Smoke is seen rising from a hill across the city. The wider area is densely populated with clustered buildings in front of a mountainous backdrop.
Furthermore, a different post by users @jocom TV and @Syria TV on Facebook included a short video from outside of the city that showed smoke billowing out of an area that had been struck by the airstrike.
The media outlet Alarabiya uploaded a separate news clip to Facebook that discussed the incidents and wider events in the region. Twitter/X user @daraa_net_2020 shared a video where a huge cloud of white smoke is seen billowing on the horizon.
@Mohammed Kamal documented the events from within the city, with his video showing material damage to a car and residential buildings. The video continues to show several different residential areas that had received damage, with rubble spilling out into the street on multiple occasions. There is at least one emergency White Helmets vehicle shown driving in the city, presumably on its way or returning from an affected area from the same incident.
Facebook user @Abd al-Kadar posted the damage from inside a civilian’s house, with significant amounts of rubble, dust, pipes, and a severely damaged bicycle.
A news report uploaded by @Al-hadath showed similar scenes, with White Helmets emergency personnel rushing to the scene of the strike in an ambulance. Upon arriving at the scene, the camera is slightly covered by the rising smoke and dust, but the material damage to the surrounding buildings is evident as the emergency crew moves in. A news anchor said that the video showed the first look from where the raid took place, Jisr Al-Shughur in Idlib countryside. The SCD volunteers in the video were asking whether there was anyone there, and then later they were telling each other to hurry and get in the car.
Syrian Civil Defense uploaded the same footage used in the news report on Facebook, and the subtitles showed the White Helmets attempting to ascertain whether there were any civilian casualties. Two civilians are captured on video leaving the area.
The same video footage on Facebook was circulated by multiple accounts on Twitter/X. @SyriaCivilDefe uploaded a video after the incident showing the damage to civilian homes in the western outskirts of Jisr al-Shughour. @Tarek_ah7mad on Twitter/X reported that the missiles used in the incident were vacuum missiles.
While multiple locations were affect by the strikes documented in this incident, the incident has been combined based on local reporting which mentions both incidents together, therefore making it challenging to separate out the casualties and media documenting the aftermath.
Where the sources identified the belligerent, they attributed the responsibility to the Syrian regime forces and/or the Russian military. The SCD emphasized that that was a joint attack by the Syrian regime and the Russian military.
The incident occured at approximately 2:53 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (21) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (16) [ collapse]
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Source: Jaser
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Source: @tarek_ah7mad
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Source: Abd al kadar
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Source: Abd al kadar
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Source: Abd al kadar
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Source: Abd al kadar
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Source: @haidari700
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