VI. Other Unlawful Air Strikes

In addition to the attacks on bakeries and hospitals and the use of cluster bombs, Human Rights Watch documented through site visits 41 air strikes in Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia governorates that were in apparent violation of the laws of war. Furthermore, through interviews with witnesses and review of video and photographs, but not site visits, Human Rights Watch documented nine other air strikes in Idlib, Homs, Hama and Damascus governorates that may have been unlawful.

These air strikes were all indiscriminate in that they did not attempt to distinguish between combatants and civilians, or used a method or means of attack that could not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Some of the air strikes in which there were lawful military targets may have been disproportionate in that the anticipated civilian loss was greater than the expected military gain of the attack. And some of the air strikes, particularly where no evidence of a military target, may have been deliberate attacks on civilians, but additional information about the apparent intent of the attack would be needed before reaching that conclusion.

Aerial Attacks in Aleppo Governorate

Human Rights Watch examined sites of aerial attacks in six towns and villages in the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo governorate. The area came under opposition control when government forces withdrew during the summer of 2012. While fighting continued between government and opposition forces at an airport in the area, the towns and villages themselves did not experience any ground fighting, but opposition fighters from some of the towns and villages actively participated in fighting with government forces in Aleppo city. Since August 2012 the government has conducted aerial bombing attacks as part of its military operations in the governorate.

Al-Bab

During visits to al-Bab, a city of approximately 150,000 residents east of Aleppo city, in mid-December 2012, Human Rights Watch documented 24 unlawful attacks. Human Rights Watch collected from relatives and witnesses the names of 44 civilians who died in these attacks. In addition to the three attacks on bakeries in al-Bab described above and an attack using incendiary weapons described below, Human Rights Watch research indicates that 20 attacks did not hit legitimate targets, instead hitting civilian objects such as residential houses, streets, and buildings used by the civilian council.

No Target Identified

For four of the 20 unlawful attacks in al-Bab, Human Rights Watch was not able to identify any potential targets in the vicinity of the site.

On September 3, 2012, a jet struck a residential area in the eastern part of town, killing ten people from the Daher and Rajab families, including four children.[132] Human Rights Watch examined the site, documenting destruction consistent with an air strike.[133] Human Rights Watch was not able to identify any potential target in the vicinity.[134]

Around 11 a.m. on September 20, a fighter jet bombed the house of the al-Mashhoud family in the eastern part of town, killing eight people, including one two-year-old child.[135] A neighbor, who said he was standing on the sidewalk across the street from the al-Mashhoud family house when the attack happened, told Human Rights Watch:

The al-Mashhoud family was just about to leave for Turkey when the attack happened. They had packed their things, and the cars were waiting outside. When they saw the jet, they went back into the house. The plane circled around, dropped one bomb and then another. The first bomb hit right in the middle of the house.[136]

Human Rights Watch examined the site and documented that the al-Mashhoud family house was completely destroyed.[137] Human Rights Watch was not able to identify any military targets in the vicinity.

Around 3 p.m. on November 6, a jet dropped two bombs on a food processing factory on the outskirts of al-Bab, killing seven workers, including five children, and injuring at least another seven.[138] According to workers in the factory interviewed by Human Rights Watch, workers were loading and unloading lentils on seven or eight vehicles, including two trucks, in the courtyard of the factory when the attack happened.[139] One bomb hit the courtyard, spreading ten tons of lentils, while the other bomb hit inside the factory, they said. After the jet dropped the bombs, it circled back and opened fire from its machine-gun, they said.[140]

Workers at the factory said that the state TV channel claimed that the factory was an ammunition factory, but they denied the claim. Human Rights Watch did not see any indication that the factory had been used to make ammunition during its visit in December. Instead, workers were sorting and packing lentils.[141]

In the fourth attack, a jet struck the roundabout in the center of al-Bab on August 31, killing one civilian.[142] Local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that there were no FSA fighters or vehicles in the vicinity.[143]

Failure to Take All Feasible Precautions

Another three of the 20 air strikes hit buildings used by the civilian council in al-Bab, which was not a valid military target. On September 14, 2012, a jet struck the Halima Sa`dia school in al-Bab with two bombs. At the time, the civilian council was using the school, according to civilian council members interviewed by Human Rights Watch.[144] In October, a jet hit a building that the civilian council had designated as a new location for the council, and which, they believed, might have been known to the Syrian forces and prompted the attack.[145] On November 4, 2012, a jet struck another school with four bombs where the civilian council had moved after the September 14 attack, according to civilian council members.[146] One of the bombs in the November 4 attack, identified by a military expert on the ground as an OFAB 250-270, did not explode.[147]

The laws of war obligate warring parties to do everything feasible to verify that the persons or objects to be attacked are military objectives and not civilians or civilian objects, and only attack military objectives.[148] In al-Bab, there appears to be a clear separation between the FSA and the local civilian council. Human Rights Watch visited the civilian council both in August when it was located in the Halima Sa`dia school, and in December in its new location.[149] Members of the civilian council appeared to be civilian: they wore civilian clothes and did not carry arms. They said they were responsible for issues such as schooling, collection of garbage, and humanitarian assistance. On both occasions, Human Rights Watch spent several hours with members of the civilian council discussing humanitarian and rule-of-law issues in al-Bab.

While there were some armed men in the neighborhood of the buildings used by the civilian council during Human Rights Watch’s visits, there appeared to be no significant armed presence or FSA fighters on the territory of the buildings used by the civilian council. Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that there were no FSA fighters or vehicles in the vicinity of the buildings at the time of the attacks.

Air Strikes Near Military Objectives

In the 13 remaining attacks of the 20 in al-Bab, Human Rights Watch was able to identify what appeared to be possible military targets in the vicinity of air strikes.

In the center of al-Bab, for example, Human Rights Watch counted nine strikes in the immediate vicinity of a building that the FSA were using. One of the eight strikes hit two residential houses nearby on August 31, killing four people.[150] Another strike on September 28 hit a residential building next to the FSA building, injuring three women.[151] On November 15, a jet attacked the al-Bab post office, which is located close by. The other six strikes on various dates in September and October hit the street, some of them injuring civilians. The FSA building itself was never hit and, at the time of Human Rights Watch’s visit in December, the FSA was moving out of the building.

Likewise, a jet might have targeted an FSA base in the southern part of the town on September 3. The jet first struck a residential building 100 meters south of the FSA base, however, killing at least three members of the Said family.[152] A second strike hit just to the north of the FSA base. The FSA base itself was never hit.[153]

In the afternoon and evening on September 14, fighter jets dropped several bombs on and in the vicinity of the Halima Sa`dia school in the Birar neighborhood, which at the time housed the local civilian council. According to local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch, one of the first strikes hit a residential house just north of the school, killing one man.[154] Then, they said, the fighter jet struck a residential house just south of the school, killing five civilians, including three women, and injuring about ten civilians.[155] Finally, two bombs struck the building and courtyard of the school itself.[156]

In a similar attack on November 4, a jet apparently targeted another school to which the civilian council moved after the September 14 attack on the Halima Sa`dia school. According to local residents, the first bombs struck and destroyed four houses to the south of the school around 10:30 a.m., killing five civilians.[157] About an hour later, one or more bombs struck to the north of the school, resulting in no casualties. Finally, four bombs, one of which failed to explode, struck the school itself, killing the head of the civilian council.[158] The strikes on the school would likely have resulted in more casualties had the school administration not sent the students home earlier that day because of the jet attacks, members of the civilian council said.[159] An opposition fighter who disassembled the unexploded bomb identified it as an OFAB 250-270.[160]

Azaz

In Azaz, a town close to the Turkish border with approximately 50,000 residents, Human Rights Watch examined three sites of attacks.[161] Jets have attacked Azaz on at least six occasions.

The attacks killed at least 35 civilians and injured more than 100, according to information collected by Human Rights Watch. No FSA fighters were killed or injured in the attacks, according to local residents, medical personnel treating the wounded, and the casualty databases. In two of the attacks, Human Rights Watch identified potential military targets in the vicinity, but the strike appeared to have missed its targets. In the third attack, Human Rights Watch was not able to identify any potential military targets.

At around 3:00 p.m. on August 15, a jet carried out two bombing runs on Azaz. Human Rights Watch had visited the town earlier in the day and returned to the sites about two hours after the attacks.

One of the attacks struck a residential area in the center of the town, flattening more than 20 houses and killing at least 34 civilians, including 9 children, according to the Azaz media center.[162] The media center told Human Rights Watch that it was not able to identify all of those killed, saying that around 50 people were killed in total.[163] Medical personnel informed Human Rights Watch in the evening on August 15 that the death toll from the attack at that time was 46. More than 100 civilians were wounded, they said.[164]

With regards to the attack on the residential area, Human Rights Watch identified two FSA facilities in the vicinity, which might have been the intended targets. One was the headquarters of the local FSA brigade, located in the former building of the Baath party, two streets away from the block that was hit (200-300 meters away). The other was a detention facility where the FSA held “security detainees”—government military personnel and pro-government militia members known as shabeeha (50-100 meters away). Neither of these facilities was damaged in the attack.

One Azaz resident from the Danoun family, Ahmed, told Human Rights Watch that the bombing killed at least 12 members of his family in their homes. He believed that four other family members were still under the ruins. He said:

I was about 100 meters away from the house when I saw the airplane and heard the sound of the bombing and destruction. My three brothers lived here. I buried 12 of my family members today, including my father, mother, and sister, and my brother’s wife as well. Walid, my brother, was cut into pieces. We didn’t recognize him at first. We also buried my brothers’ children. The youngest was 40 days old.[165]

VDC lists the names of 17 people with the family name Danoun who were killed in the attack.

The second strike hit an empty public parking lot on the outskirts of town, resulting in no casualties. Human Rights Watch identified a building the FSA was using at the time of the attack, according to a member of the local FSA, about 200 meters away from the parking lot.[166] The building was not hit in the attack, however.

The third attack in Azaz documented by Human Rights Watch took place around 2:30 p.m. on December 16. Human Rights Watch visited the site of the attack on December 20 and documented damage to several buildings consistent with eye-witness accounts.[167]

According to local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch, a jet dropped one bomb on the street in the northern part of town, killing one man sitting in a truck on the street at the time of the attack and injuring three, including a 17-year-old girl whose legs were amputated as a result of the injuries.[168]

Mare`

During several visits in August and December 2012 to Mare`, a town with about 15,000 residents north of Aleppo city, Human Rights Watch documented more than 12 strikes from jets between August and December 2012 that killed at least 12 civilians, according to local residents. A geographical analysis of the strikes reveals no particular concentration of the attacks. While some of the attacks struck close to buildings that FSA fighters had been using, according to Human Rights Watch observations, none of the attacks actually struck the buildings.

On at least three occasions, the Syrian Air Force dropped cluster bombs on the town, killing four people in one of the attacks (see Section V).

According to local residents, no FSA fighters were injured or killed in any of the attacks.

The deadliest attack in Mare` took place around noon on September 11, when a jet dropped two bombs in front of a small potato storage shed standing alone on the outskirts of town, killing five civilians, including two 17-year-old children.[169] Others were badly injured. The five men who were killed were among 14 workers loading potatoes onto a truck from the shed when the strike happened, according to relatives and witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

One of the workers, who managed to seek shelter inside the shed before the bombs exploded, told Human Rights Watch:

We didn’t hear the plane because of the noise from the refrigerator. Suddenly I heard two thumps and saw dust and rocks flying. I ran into the shed and threw myself on the ground. Ten seconds later, the bombs exploded. After the explosion I checked my body. I saw some blood, but all my limbs were intact. But the scene outside was terrifying. One person was split in two. Some people were crying out in pain. Six or seven people were lying on the ground. Some had lost their legs and arms. One man lost his two arms. There were pieces of flesh and blood on the wall.[170]

Human Rights Watch also interviewed a 14-year-old boy whose right arm was amputated as a result of his injuries.[171]

Having dropped the bomb, the jet circled back and opened fire on the shed with its cannon, delaying medical assistance to the wounded, according to witnesses.[172] The shed is located about 100 meters from the town’s main bakery, which jets had attacked at least three times previously, according to local residents.

According to local residents, Duniya TV, a pro-government news station, reported that the attack targeted a terrorist weapons depot. All five witnesses to the attack interviewed by Human Rights Watch, however, insisted that there were no FSA fighters or weapons nearby when the attack happened and that no combatants were killed or injured in the strike. One survivor told Human Rights Watch: “No one had any weapons. We were just working.”[173] Human Rights Watch saw no signs of any military activity by the warehouse during a visit in December.

In another deadly attack, a jet dropped two bombs on one of the main intersections in Mare` at around 3 p.m. on September 12, killing two civilians who were walking on the street at the time of the attack and injuring about 10, some of them severely. [174] The bombs fell on the street right outside Mare`’s municipality building, which was still occupied by the town’s pro-government mayor. Human Rights Watch visited the site on December 11, 2012.

The brother of one of the killed told Human Rights Watch:

I was standing near my shop across the street from the municipality when the jet came. I was afraid for my wife and child, so I ran inside. The jet dropped two bombs. My wife and 10-year-old child were wounded, and my brother was killed. There was no FSA in this place, and there was nothing unusual going on.[175]

Other witnesses interviewed separately by Human Rights Watch also said that there was no FSA presence in the vicinity.[176]A video of the immediate aftermath of the attack posted on YouTube shows no indication of FSA presence.[177] When Human Rights Watch visited the site of the attack in December, civilians were selling gas, food, and other items from stalls in the street. There was no indication of FSA presence.

Other sites visited by Human Rights Watch resulting in fatal casualties include a jet dropping at least three bombs on residential houses on August 21, killing one civilian,[178] and a jet dropping four cluster bombs on the town on December 12, killing four civilians (see Section V).

Human Rights Watch also visited the sites of several attacks that did not result in fatal casualties in Mare`: a residential house and a well in the center of town that were hit on August 24, wounding two civilians; a residential house that was hit on September 23, wounding several members of the same family; and a residential house that was struck with two bombs on October 8.[179] Human Rights Watch interviewed local residents to establish the dates of all these attacks and the number of killed and wounded.

Akhtarin

Local residents in Akhtarin, a town with about 5,000 residents, told Human Rights Watch that jets had attacked the town about 10 times between August and December 2012. At least two of the attacks resulted in casualties, killing a total of seven civilians, including five children. They also told Human Rights Watch that they believed at least some of the attacks had been targeted at a building on the edge of the town, which opposition fighters had used at the times of the attacks. Syrian forces struck the building in November, they said, but it sustained only minor damage. No FSA fighters were injured or killed in any of the attacks, according to local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch.[180]

Around 1 p.m. on November 7, bombs dropped by a jet destroyed three houses and killed seven civilians, including five children. The strike injured another five civilians, all younger than five years old.[181] A neighbor who rushed to the site to after the attack told Human Rights Watch:

It was tragic. The buildings had turned into a heap of rubble. We started pulling people out using just our hands and shovels. A cupboard and a wall had fallen on the children. They were still alive when we found them, but they died before we could take them to their uncle’s house. There is no clinic or medical center here.[182]

The three houses that were destroyed on November 7 were located about 50 meters away from the building allegedly used by the FSA. According to local residents, many of the strikes happened in the same area.

On August 8, a strike from a jet also injured seven or eight people in the town, according to one of the injured whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in a hospital in Turkey.[183]

On December 10, Human Rights Watch examined the site of the November 7 attack, which was consistent with the account from relatives and neighbors. The site contained three large piles of rubble, indicating where the three houses had stood.[184] Human Rights Watch also confirmed the location of the largely intact building allegedly used by the FSA. Local residents said that the FSA had moved out of the town after the attack. Human Rights Watch saw no sign that the building was in use at the time of the visit.[185]

Souran

In Souran, a small town between Azaz and Mare’, Human Rights Watch examined two sites of attacks on December 10, 2012. In one of the attacks, a jet dropped cluster bombs, injuring three civilians (see Section V). In the second attack, a jet struck a house belonging to the Jomma` family in the center of Souran around 5 p.m. on November 15. Two civilians died immediately, and two others died later from their injuries, according to neighbors and relatives of the killed. About 20 people, including seven children were injured in the attack, they said. The strike also injured three children, aged seven years, five years, and seven months, from the Jomma` family, according to members of the family.[186] One relative living across the street from the house that was hit told Human Rights Watch:

When we heard the plane we ran into the houses. Then the bomb exploded, and the entire area shook. Afterwards I ran out and saw my relative’s house. Five rooms in the house were completely destroyed. Three people from my family died in that attack, and many were injured. Some are still receiving treatment in Turkey.[187]

Human Rights Watch examined the site of the attack on December 10 and documented destruction consistent with the eyewitness accounts. At the time of the visit, workers were rebuilding large parts of a set of buildings around a yard, which formed the Jomma` house. Human Rights Watch also examined cracks in the walls on neighboring houses, allegedly from the bomb that fell on the Jomma` house.[188]

Neighbors and family members also showed Human Rights Watch remnants of the bomb that struck the house, including the fuze used with aviation ordnance. Analysis of the remnants by Human Rights Watch arms experts indicates that the house was struck by an OFAB bomb.

The Jomma` family's house is located in the center of Souran. The closest apparent military target was a building on the outskirts of town that the FSA used, according to local residents and Human Rights Watch’s site visit, about 400 meters away from the Jomma` house. Neighbors and family members interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that there were no FSA fighters, vehicles, or equipment near the house on the day of the attack.[189]

Tel Rifa`t

During visits in August and December 2012 to Tel Rifa`t, a town with about 20,000 residents, Human Rights Watch examined the sites of two attacks.

Around 7 a.m. on August 7, two jets dropped six bombs on the town. At least one struck a civilian house, killing nine members of the Blaw family. Two witnesses described the scene at the home. One of them said:

It was a house belonging to my neighbors, the Blaw family. When we arrived, it was a pile of rubble. It took us three hours to get the trucks and start taking the people out. It was impossible at first to tell how many were inside—they were blown apart into small pieces. There were several small children, with hands and legs torn off, and heads so distorted it was impossible to recognize them. Fatma Blaw [a daughter] was still alive; we rushed her to a hospital in Turkey, but her injuries were too serious and the doctors couldn’t save her. Her two brothers, parents, and four other children died on the spot, but it took us a while to collect their remains. I’ve never seen anything so horrible.[190]

Human Rights Watch examined the site of the attack and confirmed that the Blaw family house was completely destroyed. The house is located across the street from a school where the local opposition administration, a court, and small detention facility were located, guarded by a few armed men.

According to two witnesses, some FSA fighters were sleeping in another school nearby, and they might have been the intended target. One bomb hit that school, but witnesses did not report any wounded or killed fighters.

Air Strikes in Latakia and Idlib Governorates

On December 15-17, Human Rights Watch visited seven sites of air strikes in three towns and villages in the northern part of Latakia and the western part of Idlib governorates. On three occasions, Human Rights Watch was present in the towns when they were being attacked.[191]

The towns and villages visited by Human Rights Watch were under opposition control at the time of the visit and had seen no ground fighting for months. While many towns and villages in these governorates have experienced almost daily aerial attacks according to local residents, the number of civilian casualties was much lower than in Aleppo. For Latakia, for example, VDC had registered 19 deaths by aerial attack as of March 1, 2013. Residents and opposition fighters interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the low casualty figures were likely due to several factors, including more frequent use of helicopters (as opposed to jets in Aleppo), which gives civilians time to seek shelter before an attack; and massive displacement due to fear of shelling and air strikes; some of the towns and villages visited by Human Rights Watch were almost empty of civilians. Interviews with residents and examination of remnants from the attacks also indicated that the Syrian Air Force used improvised bombs more frequently than in Aleppo.

Kansba, Latakia

On December 17, Human Rights Watch visited three attack sites, including one site attacked by cluster bombs, in Kansba, a village with about 2,000 residents in Latakia governorate.

In November, a helicopter dropped an improvised aerial bomb that landed outside a residential house, killing a woman in her 60s, according to a member of the newly formed local police force.[192] Human Rights Watch visited the site of the attack and documented a large crater about 20 meters from the house and significant damage to several rooms in the house. Local residents said that a helicopter also dropped at least two cluster bombs about 200 meters from the center of the village in November, but there were no reported casualties. (See section on Cluster Bomb Attacks above.)

Around 11:30 a.m. on December 14, a helicopter struck a residential area in the village, completely destroying five houses, according to local residents. Nobody was injured in the attack, they said. One person whose home was destroyed in the attack told Human Rights Watch:

I was about 100 meters away, in the mosque, getting ready for prayer when the attack happened. Luckily, I had sent my wife and children to the neighbor’s house, so she was there when the bomb fell. Five houses were fully destroyed. [193]

Human Rights Watch visited the site on December 17 and documented the complete destruction of several houses.[194] Human Rights Watch also examined remnants of the bomb, thick pieces of steel that are normally found at sites that have been hit by high-explosive bombs. Human Rights Watch was not able to establish the exact munition type used in the attack.

One of the members of the local police force told Human Rights Watch:

There were about 2,000 people living in the village, but most left about seven months ago when the government started using helicopters. Now there are just some opposition policemen and some families. We get hit by about four to five barrel bombs per day. They try to hit mostly inside the village, but no opposition fighters have been killed or injured. The only people who were killed were a civilian man in his 30s and the old woman.[195]

Al-Najiya, Idlib

In al-Najiya, a town with about 10,000 residents in Idlib governorate close to the border with Latakia, Human Rights Watch documented three attacks during a visit on December 15. Around 9:30 a.m. on November 7, 2012, a helicopter dropped two improvised aerial bombs in the northwestern part of town, according to local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch. One of the bombs hit the main street leading to the center of the town, killing one civilian and injuring two children, ages 15 and 12, they said.[196] A second bomb fell in the field, outside the town, killing a 6 or 7-year-old girl.[197]

A local resident told Human Rights Watch:

We were all here when the bomb struck. We heard the helicopter coming; it passed, circled back, and then struck with two improvised bombs. One man died in the street, and two young children were injured. They had escaped here from the fighting in Salma [the regional center]. There are just regular stores in front of the house: a generator repair store, a TV store, and a place that sells satellite dishes. The nearest FSA checkpoint is three kilometers away. Before the strike, people were just passing by on the road. There were no fighters here. It was just civilians in the street. There are no places here where they keep weapons.[198]

Just thirty minutes before Human Rights Watch arrived in the town, a helicopter dropped a cluster bomb on a residential area in the eastern part of town. Although there were many civilians in the town, there were no reported injuries, as most of the civilians had managed to seek shelter before the bomb struck (see Section V).

A defector from the army who had arrived to disarm and collect the unexploded bomblets told Human Rights Watch that there were three FSA units made up from people in the area, but that they were based outside the village. While Human Rights Watch saw a couple of armed men in the village during the visit, there was no sign of significant military presence in the village. The nearest FSA checkpoint was located a couple of kilometers outside of the village.

As Human Rights Watch was documenting the cluster bomb attack, the helicopter returned and dropped an improvised aerial bomb close to the cluster bomb site. At the time, there were dozens of civilians in the area who had come to see the remnants of the cluster bomb. The bomb failed to explode.

Majdal Keekhya, Latakia

Around 1 p.m. on August 19, a helicopter dropped two bombs on and near a house on the outskirts of Majdal Keekhyh, a small village with about 800 people in Latakia governorate, killing two children. [199] The children’s father, an FSA fighter who was away at the time of the attack and heard about it from his family members and neighbors, told Human Rights Watch:

Five people were in the house when the bombs fell. Two of my children died immediately. The other three were injured and stayed 1.5 months in the hospital. They are trying to attack houses of demonstrators, activists, and just ordinary citizens to make them reject the revolution. This village was liberated a long time ago. There was no FSA in the town. Even I was somewhere else fighting.[200]

Human Rights Watch visited the site of the attack on December 17, which contained a house that had been completely destroyed, and interviewed other members of the family who confirmed the father’s account. Human Rights Watch was not able to identify any possible targets in the vicinity.[201]

Other Documented Attacks

Human Rights Watch has collected information about other attacks based on interviews with residents and victims, but was unable to investigate the sites. While these cases require further investigation, all witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch about these attacks said that no opposition fighters were in the immediate vicinity during the attacks. In all cases included below Human Rights Watch also checked the VDC casualty database, which lists no opposition fighters among the casualties for these attacks.

Idlib Governorate

In the afternoon on October 28, 2012, a jet dropped two bombs on the town of al-Bara, killing at least sixteen civilians, including two children and one woman.[202] A witness who was in the town during the attack told Human Rights Watch that FSA fighters from al-Bara were fighting in Ma`rat al-Nu`man at the time of the attack and that none of them were close to the attack. According to witnesses and VDC, there were no non-civilians among those killed or injured in the strike.[203]

Around noon on September 15, a jet dropped a bomb on a residential house in Saraqeb in the Idlib governorate, killing ten people immediately, including three children and two women.[204] One person died two days later from injuries sustained in the attack. According to two witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch by phone, an abandoned FSA base was located about 200 meters from the house that was struck. The FSA headquarters in Saraqeb is also located about 500 meters away. The attack did not affect either of the FSA locations, according to the witnesses. Two videos posted on YouTube show the immediate aftermath of the attack.[205]

On August 28, a jet struck a market in Kafranbel next to its main square, killing at least 18 civilians and destroying several stores and a house close to the Grand Mosque.[206] According to two witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, opposition fighters had pushed government forces out of the town on August 10.[207] They said that all “revolutionaries” were outside the village and that there were no FSA in the town at the time of the attack.[208]

On August 24, at 7 a.m., two helicopters attacked the small village of Kan Safra in Idlib, dropping six bombs that killed seven civilians, including at least three children and two women.[209] One witness told Human Rights Watch that no FSA fighters were inside the village, with the closest military checkpoint 15 km away, and that there was no active fighting in the town at the time of the attack.[210]

On August 22, 2012, at around 6:45 p.m., a jet dropped four bombs on the town of Kafranbel. According to an activist who filmed the aftermath of the attack, the bombs fell in a neighborhood referred to as Hajez, immediately killing 11, including 5 women and 5 children, and wounding 37.[211] According to the activist, the FSA had left the town in the days following their conquest of the town on August 10 and were based outside the city at the time of the attack. Kafranbel had witnessed heavy fighting between the Syrian Army and the opposition Free Syrian Army from August 6 to August 10 when the armed opposition overran the last remaining Syrian army stronghold inside the town.[212]

Around 8:30 p.m. on August 15, a jet struck civilian buildings about 500 meters from the Imam Mosque in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib governorate, killing at least five civilians, including one child.[213] According to two witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch in Turkey, there were no FSA fighters or targets in the immediate vicinity. One local resident said that FSA fighters were located 300-500 meters away at the time of the attack, but that they were not hit.

Homs Governorate

On November 2, a helicopter dropped an improvised aerial bomb on a residential neighborhood in Eastern al-Buwayda in Homs governorate, destroying two homes and killing at least four people, including two children.[214] Two witnesses who were near the site at the time of the attack and went there immediately afterwards told Human Rights Watch that no FSA fighters were in the neighborhood during the attack and none were among the casualties.[215]

Hama Governorate

On August 28, helicopters hit several homes and a cemetery in the village of Shahranaz in Jabal Shahshabu in the Hama governorate, killing at least five civilians, including four children, and wounding others. A civilian who said she was injured and that her three siblings died in the attack told Human Rights Watch that there were no FSA fighters or opposition military deployments in the village during the attack and that the FSA is based outside the village. Two other members from her family provided similar accounts to Human Rights Watch.[216]

Damascus Countryside Governorate

On August 20, a helicopter struck a residential area in the Khaleej neighborhood of Daraya in Damascus Countryside governorate, killing at least twelve people, including four children, according to two local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Lebanon.[217] Both residents estimated that there were 400-500 FSA soldiers in the woods surrounding Daraya, a town of about 300,000, but that they were not near the strike site at the time of the attack. According to them, the FSA soldiers had mostly moved to the woods surrounding the town, including in the areas neighboring Kafr Susseh, al-Ma`damiya, Sahnaya, and Liwan. A third resident from the neighborhood estimated that the closest FSA position was 10 kilometers away from the strike site.[218]