Douma Market Attack: Precedents

Douma Market Attack: Precedents
September 7, 2015
(cleanup and completed, October 14)

Peter Bouckaert, "Emergencies Director" for Human Rights Watch wrote on August 20 Douma: Syria’s horrors need the world’s attention. This was released the same day HRW called for an arms embargo on the Syrian government over the attack (that's part of of what Bouckaert means by "attention"). I have been paying more attention than most and still see no reason to think a jet was involved; the physical evidence is fairly consistent with that, or a number of other things, but there's no video or photo of the jet or contrail, no radar track, no consistent missile remains specified, and for some reason there's even vagueness about the attack time.

And this is looking worse and worse compared to increasing reasons to see instead a laundered terrorist massacre of almost entirely male captives. I recently published what might be a smoking gun proving that rebels just laundered another of their massacres; the inset photo of around 40 gathered bodies was taken just minutes after the August 16 missile/rocket attack, meaning at least this big portion of the victims were dead well before the alleged cause existed. A critic on Twitter chided me and "Syricide" (who re-tweeted me on it) so: "Peddling any conspiracy theory that exonerates #Assad and his loyalists no matter how far fetched. Classic." I replied well; "Lol, "Far fetched" Far from what activists said, fetched by photo proof." 

That may have been a bit strong to say, "proof" - it's still being analyzed, pending certainty we've actually read it right. But in the meantime, I had promised an article on the rich if under-appreciated history of precedents for this being a false-flag provocation or even worse. Here it finally is, for those having a hard time seeing how near-fetched such a thing really would be, in two parts: Sarajevo (1992-1995) and Syria (2011 to present)

Sarajevo

First, lest reach back and fetch a far example, decades old, but cited by those blaming the Syrian government and by those questioning that blame. HRW's Peter Bouckaert, in his "Syria's horror" thing cited above, pointed a solid precedent for such a government-sponsored atrocity that was dealt with adequately and serves as a model here.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, a similarly brutal bombing of a marketplace during the Bosnian war changed the course of that conflict. On 28 August, 1995, during its siege of the city of Sarajevo, forces of the breakaway Republika Srpska fired 5 mortar shells into the Markale market, killing 43 and wounding 75.

The horror and outrage generated by that attack - the second on the Markale market, following a 5 February, 1994 strike that killed 68 - unified much of the international community into action.

He cited eventual prosecution of Serbian officers as supporting evidence for their guilt, but failed to mention there was a serious air war along the way to that. NATO air strikes of 1995, per the Wikipedia article, "struck 338 Bosnian Serb targets, many of which were destroyed" in a one-month campaign starting on August 30. The planners of "Operation Deliberate Force" clearly did not deliberate very long before they had bombs falling two days after the provocation at Markale market. This international action would eventually force an end of the war, on terms favoring the ethnic Albanian separatists (from Yugoslavia) over the "breakaway" Republika Srpska (favoring the preservation of Yugoslavia).  "Sadly," Bouckaert concludes, "it seems unlikely that the horror of the latest market attack in Douma will bring about any effective international response" of the kind seen in 1995. 

In case it matters, and it wasn't mentioned by Bouckaert, the Wikipedia page for Markale massacres points out while first analysis was clear in blaming the Serbs, "a later and more in-depth UNPROFOR report noted a calculation error in the original findings. With the error corrected, the United Nations concluded that it was impossible to determine which side had fired the shell." Well, then how did the UN, the Hague's jurists, and others decide, then and now, who it was? Apparently they picked the side with the anti-motive, the side who lost the ensuing air war their third suicide attempt (see below) finally triggered. This is a preview how any Syria war crimes trials will be run, and this Douma attack, a plain as day "official massacre," is likely to be included.

Aftermath of one the Markale attacks, from Lewis report

I just now heard of crime writer Robert Lewis, who shared his informed thoughts about the Douma allegations on August 28, the 20-year anniversary of the last Markale bombing.

The story reminded me that despite the fact markets have no [military] value, they’re bombed all the time.  ... [almost entirely] the victims have been Muslim (I have started to compile a spreadsheet). These bombings occur with incredible frequency, and an astonishing number of them are never claimed by any terrorist group. Isn’t that bizarre? It suggests a strategy of tension, or perhaps several of them. Certainly it warrants further study.

Of course, many of them are blamed on non-terrorist state actors, being branded as terrorists, but always uselessly denying the accusations, so no terrorist admission should be expected. Lewis focuses on Markale, adding a less-known attack there in 1992 for a total of three before war was finally sparked. He notes that:

"On each occasion there was ambiguity about whether the Bosnian Serbs were actually responsible. General Michael Rose believed the shells actually came from the Bosnian side. Multiple sources (such as Michael Rose, David Owen, Boutros Boutros Ghali, President Mitterand, and Yasushi Akashi, the UN Special Envoy for Bosnia) refer to a secret UN investigation which found exactly that. A second, non-secret UN report (the one intended for publication) confined itself to saying the attack could not be confidently attributed to any particular faction.

I have visited the market in Sarajevo. An arc of attack was not apparent. Sightlines were few and very narrow. It would take exceptional skill, I think, to accurately and reliably hit it with the groupings and timings we are asked to believe in. I do not seek to exonerate the Bosnian Serbs, who seem to have sniped and shelled Sarajevo at will, but the mortar attacks in question reveal what you might call a tradition of unattributed, misreported, propagandistic attacks on Muslim markets. And the CIA and the Saudi-funded Islamists were present then just as they are today.

Oct. 14 note on "arc of attack." He didn't see in Markale one to point one way or the other, but this is one precedent that doesn't carry over to the Douma market attack. In that case there's an arc, which points to ground artillery to the south, not to a fighter jet above at different angles. A rebel lie about rockets fired from a rebel area doubly points to rebels and false-flag. This case becomes a precedent for understanding the others, as well as vice-versa. See mapping the arc of attack.

Furthermore, the 1994 and 1995 Sarajevo attacks and the credulous response came after time to reflect on earlier discredited accusations, rebel false-flag attacks back in 1992, perhaps including the early Markale attack. As the UK Independent reported at the time:

United Nations officials and senior Western military officers believe some of the worst recent killings in Sarajevo, including the massacre of at least 16 people in a bread queue, were carried out by the city's mainly Muslim defenders - not Serb besiegers - as a propaganda ploy to win world sympathy and military intervention.

The view has been expressed in confidential reports circulating at UN headquarters in New York, and in classified briefings to US policymakers in Washington." 

Even those leaking these classified details are quick to de-emphasize such events as irrelevant flukes: "The officials were anxious to point out that they were not trying to exonerate the Serbs, who have been besieging Sarajevo for months, killing unknown numbers of townspeople, as well as carrying out 'ethnic cleansing' around the city and elsewhere in Bosnia." So this is an at-least kind of list by people interested in blaming the Serb side, among a barrage of false-flag attacks, discarding the worst fakes and keeping the rest as a deciding majority. But among those they were forced to reject, besides the bread line attack:

* "UN officials also believe the bullet which killed the American television producer David Kaplan near Sarajevo airport on 13 August was probably not fired by a sniper from distant Serbian positions. 'That would have been impossible,' one UN military officer said. 'That shot came in horizontal to the ground. Somebody was down at ground level.'"

* "UN officials also say a Ukrainian soldier shot in the head and heart at Sarajevo's Marshal Tito barracks on Thursday was killed by 'small arms fire' - by implication the Bosnians."

I've bumped into signs of a false-flag mosque-bombing suspect, a PFLP-GC member apparently active in Bosnia in May 1992, called "Abu Elias." He may also have been involved - centrally - in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, and was last known to be living in Virginia with a US government engineering job, under an odd pseudonym (Basel Bushnaq, in Arabic: brave Bosnian) (see here).

Syria

Examples to the Syria conflict will be more immediately relevant. There have been numerous reported government-ordered attacks on bread lines, public markets, and the like. I've only looked at a few of these and the details were generally hard to call with certainty - tension/provocation seem most likely in general, but I'm talking about supporting evidence, not starting hunches. So no clear lessons pop to mind (but later, some records analysis was added at this post), but a few other cases with common features are worth considering.

Non-Jet Jet Attack on Civilians: Aleppo University, Jan., 2013

Blast crater at Aleppo University, facing E-SE

The Douma claims are quite similar to the alleged fighter jet attack on Aleppo University, activists were clear a fighter jet fired a missile at the school of architecture on January 15 during exams, swooped around and fired again, killing dozens of students at "the University of the Revolution," as pro-revolution people called it. Unlike this case that did feature jet evidence to back up the claims - a vapor trail shown on video, but looking more rocket-oriented) On closer inspection that attack had no jet; the forensics (lack of jet indicators in video of the attack, size of blast and severity of damage, and - I think - the apparent direction of fire) favor the government's story: terrorists had fired two powerful surface rockets from the north-northwest.

The brunt of the attack was taken not by students but by a tent camp for displaced people outside the dormitories packed with other people displaced from their homes by fighting or rebel occupation (see ACLOS page, talk page, and un-developed physical evidence page). A later report gives a final figure of over 90 people killed besides the hundreds wounded, again mainly IDPs, and then 15 students were killed in a further attack on March 28.

* 100+ dead as magic number: Houla Massacre, May, 2012, Hama July 2011, etc.

We may all still remember the furor in May/June 2012 over Assad's brutl Houla Massacre, where Army shelling enabled a Shabiha invasion of a Sunni rebel village, where they massacred 108 random Sunni civilians, almost half of them children. It was an unprecedented scale of child-killing that was totally blamed on "Assad" and sparked an unprecedented wave of diplomatic warfare and greater support to the rebels.

But the fact is it was rebel shelling and Salafist terrorist massacre against targeted families in the last government-held part of the Houla region, immediately after they finally overran the remaining security posts there, as the video record actually shows. I know what the UN investigation found, and I can show where they went wrong. Well-read video evidence trumps their sloppy hodge-podge of reasoning any day. As for the victims, those whose stories agree with the video evidence say the victims were mainly former Sunnis who converted to Shi'ism, and others who remained Sunni but supported the government.

But it's the number that I cited it for. That third digit makes a world of difference in how the world reacts. Consider July 31, 2011, the first day in the campaign when just over 100 people died in one place on one day. Turns out there was a rebel offensive that day and a quarter of the dead were security forces, some slaughtered and dumped in the river. The rest; 87 ostensibly civilian men, were unclear. The world denounced "Assad's" brutality against the unarmed protesters, and dismissed his lies about them being armed terrorists.

Unlike that, the Houla Massacre famously involved women and especially children murdered on a horrific scale. And consider the first triple-digit massacre of "entire families" that "Assad" convincingly pulled off...

* Triple Digit Deaths + Female-Sparing Bombs; Khalidiya, Feb. 2012

Activists said regime shelling on a rebel-held area destroyed 20+ homes overnight Feb. 3/4, killing whole families in a main, first-reported batch of 138 people. But these, by opposition lists, were 130 men and 8 boys, many with odd injuries to the throat. A smaller number of more mixed victims were counted later, including about 8 women and 4 girls, making the final tally only about 90% adult male. (see ACLOS page)

That's strikingly similar to the Douma market attack death toll - not quite as all-man as it first seemed, but almost. It's suspicious, suggesting some kind of unnatural gender segregation. After the Khalidiya massacre, state media aired locals speaking of a terrorist assault on police stations the same day, and some of whom claimed they recognized the "Shelling" victims on rebel videos as family or neighbors who had been kidnapped. Such claims are consistent by these unverified details from a John Rosenthall report:, citing Mother Agnes-Mariam:

According to an account published in French on the monastery’s website, rebels gathered Christian and Alawi hostages in a building in Khalidiya and blew up the building with dynamite. They then attributed the crime to the regular Syrian army. “Even though this act has been attributed to regular army forces ... the evidence and testimony are irrefutable: It was an operation undertaken by armed groups affiliated with the opposition,” Mother Agnès-Mariam wrote.

In my experience/opinion, this source deserves the nickname Mother Agnes of the Mixed Reliability. Such reports are usually based on real claims, but the claims aren't always true. Nor are they always false, nor that there was ever a case that was totally certain anyway. The claims in this case seem well-worth considering, and quite possibly relevant to the apparent 2015 massacre in Douma of 100+ men and a few others, that was hidden under dubious fighter jet claims.

Regime Massacre Victims, Killed by Rebels: Douma, August, 2012

victim of Aug. 16 massacre, opp. video

(see Douma Hostage Massacre page at ACLOS ) - perhaps an even better anniversary point for the Douma allegations, it was around August 17, 3 years earlier, when rebels found 16 local men kidnapped by Assad-loyalist thugs and recently killed by slicing their throats - likely on August 16, which could make the market attack a sort of anniversary homage to this earlier crime. 

But 6 of those same men were already shown, and clearly, on a FSA rebel unit's recent video as government loyalists they had captured and were threatening to kill. It was an obvious case of terrorists fobbing off their own massacre. And it happened in Douma, back in 2012, before it became as overwhelmingly Islamist-friendly as it is today (pro "army of Islam" activists say the regime killed civilians at the market because all of Douma loves "Army of Islam" who were also winning battles, by the way). Back then, neighboring Harasta seemed to be leading the way, with Douma dragging its feet. The death squad responsible for this massacre was based there.

There's no such proof I know of for the Douma market victims being slaughtered in that manner. From the few dozen I've seen, most are not throat-cutting victims. But some cases are unclear or even suspicious. Consider Akram Seroul, as given - it's him, an alleged fighter jet victim of August 16, shown above (I was being tricky! It's leading, but just for effect!).

Fighter Jet Kills People in Market: Ariha, Idlib, Aug.3, 2015
Here's a bizarre precedent speaking to fighter jets bombing markets on Assad's order and, in this case, crashing the jet into it deliberately to kill more, in an expensive new way to argue for a "no fly zone." Over 30 civilians, mostly men, were listed as killed. (expanded into this article for more details).

Getty Images/Anadolu Agency has a photo to prove that this time a jet was over the market and thus might have hit it; some flag-marked jet wreckage, next to melons. It looks arguably natural how it came together, but ... to me, the metal appears to be quite weathered, having spent some time in its crumpled state. If it was shot down long ago and had wreckage dripped here to prove jet-on-market action ... what does that say about later alleged jet-on-market attacks?

Douma Market Attack {Masterlist}

August 20, 2015
(incomplete)
last updates October 14

The August 16 alleged fighter jet attack on a crowded market in Douma, Damascus, was instantly and widely decried by world leaders and concerned people everywhere as an obvious war crime by the government. Of course, the alleged part is never considered fairly in these reflexive yelps. No one among them has considered the details realistically or wants to.

Part 1: Initial Questions - what proof is there it really was a jet? Why are at least 100 of the 112 or so reported victims listed as adult males? Why were at least 95 of the dead unclaimed for usual family burial, and interred in anonymous-style mass graves instead?

See also: A Closer Look On Syria research wiki: Douma Market Attack - Talk:Douma Market Attack (ACLOS pages remain somewhat under-developed but getting more useful)

September 18 update: The parts that get better, usually, is where we get specific, especially with the visual evidence. Where it stands one month after the attack: pretty solid.  

One-Month Investigation Review 

Oct. 13: one crucial point covered in the review but then expanded here is the "arc of attack" (all 4 impacts mapped to app. firing spot, at right) essentially proving local rebels firing rockets, and not a government jet, was behind this attack.

Below is some of the (starting) work going into this, to be expanded past that as well.

Video Overview

Big video list by content and victim analysis are linked but external - at this post some detailed  locations established, some thoughts explored here, some more important ones just summarized with links to the posts where they get more detail.

Or Video Catalog for just the list.

Victim Analysis

Victim lists linked, a list of 35 victim ID videos, some analysis and, with limited input from others, so far, I've discovered some complications to the all-man argument (that still seems valid, just complicated, with issues that raise their own troubling questions.

At least these points so far are worth their own sub-posts: 

- Victims Dead Before the Attack? Comparing a vague reported time to more reliable evidence suggests an attack around between 1:00 and 1:26 PM local time, or as they say "about noon." So how on earth could 40+ bodies of men and boys, already dry, be gathered from that attack by about 1:15 (or 1:00-1:30), as a photograph shows? They can't. So why did activists claim they did? And how really did they die?

-  A drawn-and-quartered boy? "Assad bombs" PULLING children apart in Douma?

- Head-hacked girls? One very clear case, others less clear, but they aren't shelling victims.  Someone executed them.

- Men and boys with burned faces, with boys getting it worst.

Part 2: Precedents to consider - partly worked into the above, a short custom list is needed, and should be handy already, but had to wait (finally added Sept. 7 - historical precedents, Sarajevo, then Syiria) (stopped doing numbered "parts" before part 3.

Other Market Attacks More specific precedents; General research on similar alleged market-oriented attacks in the Syria conflict. Similar and suspect patterns emerge.

September 21, 2015 Aleppo Market Attack

September 21, 2015 Aleppo Market Attack
September 23, 2015
(incomplete) 
last edits Sept. 24

Note: No real research on this yet, but some thoughts, starter material, etc. ...

AP reports (via New York Daily News) under the headline "Syrian government forces kill at least 18 in market blast: activists" "Activists" again refers to the SOHR, and also the LCC, calling on their sources in Shaar, "a rebel-held neighborhood" of Aleppo city. Rebel shells and rockets on government-held areas have been rather intense lately, killing sometimes dozens of civilians at a time. Once again, the rebels and sources - who should be ebtirely Islamist-leaning by now - come back with this market-centered accusation to shift the balance of propaganda back in their favor. 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the surface-to-surface missile hit a market in Aleppo’s Shaar neighborhood, killing 18 and wounding dozens. It added that a wave of rockets struck the area afterward.

The Local Coordination Committees said the attack by Bashar Assad’s brutal regime targeted a street with clothing stores. It said 20 died and more than 40 were wounded.

* Mashable: attack caught on video (shares Civil Defense videos of aftermath, not the attack)

* Al-Jazeera Assad forces kill dozens of civilians in Syria's Aleppo: "(SOHR's) Abdelrahman said 18 civilians were killed, but other sources told Al Jazeera that the fatalities were as high as 32." Byline claims "at least 32."
The "brutal regime" targeted clothing stores - whose? Which rebel group runs this area? Are they terrorists? If so, they might do this themselves. If not, they'll surely have terrorist competitors in the area who would do it.

Or maybe, as they say, the regime did it. But that's not fair to presume by recent precedent It has some similarities to the Douma market attack just over a month ago - an alleged jet attack that allegedly killed over 100, that appears instead to be done by surface rockets and as cover for people mainly dead before that. There's also the August 3 market attack in Ariha, Idlib province, where activists swear a jet bombed the market then deliberately crashed into it. In reality, that too was probably a surface rocket rebels have plenty of. Other jet claims that fell apart are among the precedents for these precedents, and there may well be other insights from the spectrum of alleged market attacks in Syria cataloged here, many blamed on jets or, more often, helicopters with their all-powerful "barrel bombs."

In this case, there's no jet alleged, just a surface rocket. I suppose this time the weapon is true, but one way or another anti-Syria terrorists probably fired this, just like the others hitting market areas and fulfilling their propaganda needs. It's quite likely, however, that they managed to fake a firing line that points to a Syrian forces position, and the unanswered question will be how far out along that line. (that's just a guess before even looking)

And by precedent, the majority of the dead may have nothing to do with the blasts themselves, which serve mainly to launder whichever local massacre rebels want to shift the blame for on that day. .

Victim Records
VDC Record Evolution
Opposition Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria (VDC), linked to the LCC lists 24 dead this day under the note "More than 20 people killed due to shelling by Syrian regime forces using what so called "elephant missiles" on the civilian population areas."

There were only 22 entries, so two were added since I first looked. All are dated 9-21, suggesting no later deaths among the critically wounded. These 24 are 17 men (was 18), five boys (was 2), one woman, and one girl. No repeat family names, but 12 adult males were unidentified when I first looked. Now 4 of those are named, some as boys.

Names compared to other recent deaths in the area might yield interesting patterns, but I haven't yet. All are listed as from Shaar, no non-locals - some do include ages, if no other info. Boy ages: 10, 13, 16, 17, 17. I'm guessing men cluster on the other side 18. The girl was aged 10, the woman aged 50. All females in between these ages were miraculously spared from death?

All civilian, killed by shelling 9-21, from Shaar
Abdullah Kharmah Child - Male 13
Hani Darweesh AlDarweesh  Child - Male     17
Ahmad Assaf  Adult - Male    48
Abdulnaser Beetar  Adult - Male    
Taha Mamdouh Sabbagh  Adult - Male   
Majed Omran  Adult - Male   
Amira Ghazal   Adult - Female   
Deebow Qbeia   Child - Male    
Nawaf Housein Ibrahim Albaha   Child - Male    
Mohammad Hassoun Rannan    Adult - Male    
Unidentified 12    Adult - Male    
Firas Jaber    Adult - Male   
Sara Masree     Child - Female  
Unidentified 1   Adult - Male     Aleppo 
Unidentified 2   Adult - Male     Aleppo 
Unidentified 3   Adult - Male     Aleppo
Unidentified 4   Adult - Male     Aleppo 
Unidentified 5    Adult - Male     Aleppo  
Unidentified 6     Adult - Male     Aleppo 
Unidentified 7     Adult - Male     Aleppo  
Muhammad Jamal Beibee    Child - Male 
Osama Abdullatif Abdulaltif      Adult - Male  
Muhammad Jamal Ramee     Adult - Male   
Bakree Ahmad Marroush        Adult - Male    

Another Arabic list I found has only 15 entries, at least some matching names, most with ages. (note: VDC entries can be switched to Arabic for checking: type /ar in the url were /en is and reload). This has victims from two districts/neighborhoods: 6 from al-Sha'ar and 9 from al-Midan Children ages shown: 12, 16, and 16. This says three unidentified dead from Midan were of family al-Basha ( الباشا ) , first names unknown - VDC's list has no such name, but one is close: one is identified Nawaf Housein Ibrahim Albaha ( البها ) age 17. I'm guessing this is what they meant, and 2 more of the unidentified share his name.

Just being lazy and saving the whole list here:
حي الميدان :

1- ﻣﺤﻤﺪ ﻋﺎﺩﻝ ﺍﺣﻤﺪ ﻋﺰﻳﺰﻱ 21 سنة
2- ﻓﺮﺍﺱ صالح ﺟﺎﺑﺮ 25 سنة
3- فاتح نجيب سراج الدين 18 سنة
4- ريان بكري نيرباني 12 سنة
5- عائشة بكري نيرباني 16 سنة
876- من عائلة الباشا
9- مجهولة الهوية


حي الشعار :

10- احمد عساف 48 سنة
11- عبد الناصر بيطار 38 سنة
12- طه ممدرح سباغ
13- ماجد عمران 50 سنة
14- اميرة غزال 50 سمة
15- ديبو قبيع 16 سنة

Images  (video and photo)
*  aftermath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pv207oFslU
* aftermath, helmet camera (in compilation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK9pmqLWY8E
* Damage photo, Getty/Anadolu
* There was at least one photo I saw of a small rocket impact mark on pavement that could easily show the firing direction. 

Syria: Massacre of the Jet

September 15
(incomplete)
last edits Sept. 25

This is an especially interesting example of Syrian market attack that deserves its own post, and now, even if incomplete (that is, it's worth completing eventually, so I'll lock myself into it with this post)

War News Updates reports 27 civilians were killed and dozens wounded "after a Syrian army fighter jet crashed into a marketplace in the Syrian town of Ariha in Idlib province." Citing Reuters citing locals, they say civilians were mainly killed, and "The plane had dropped a bomb on the main Bazaar street at low altitude only seconds before it crashed," Ghazal Abdullah, a resident who was close to the incident, told Reuters."

* Reuters report: Syrian jet crashes into market in rebel-held area, 27 killed 

"The plane had dropped a bomb on the main Bazaar street at low altitude only seconds before it crashed," said Ghazal Abdullah, a resident who was close to the incident.
The Observatory said the jet was not shot down.

* The Guardian (almost the same but adds a photo of wreckage and a different video)

Ariha, Idlib province  was recently conquered by the al-Qaeda-led "Army of Conquest," with the most overt Turkish assistance yet, a bit after Idlib city. As such it will be another Islamist occupation area like in Douma. All the reliable sources are dead or fled, if more recently than in Douma.

The opposition VDC (Douma-based, co-founder long-ago abducted by local Islamists, or...) lists 34 dead in Idlib this day under the note ""Massacre of the Jet, "several people martyred due to the falling of a Meg Jet on the local market in the city." 32 men, 2 boys, no females (listed). Generic Videos, not reviewed: 1 - 2 - 3.

Suicide Crash? By WarNews' report, No shooting is mentioned in the crash, the SOHR specified the plane was not shot down ... original source forthcoming - SOHR reported that the jet was not shot down, so ... all damage should be from its bombs or, less-obvious to me ... are they saying the jet bombed the market then crashed in without being shot down? The SOHR may be hearing - from their remaining (Islamist) sources in Ariha - that regime jets are suicide-attacking markets now, just to kill civilians and make an expensive and illogical new case for a "no fly zone."

SOHR reports
As Reuters said, "the observatory said the jet was not shot down." I looked for their own words on it, but it seems to be something they said to reporters, not in their own dispatches. Between their Facebook page (with an unusual blank span that day, with thin days before and after) and their website, there's no mention of this aspect of implied suicide attack. It's not mentioned if it was shot down or not. But Reuters says they did say this, so they probably did. Was it retracted or just not repeated?

August 3: toll from "aerial bombardment and crashing of a warplane in the vegetable market area in the city has risen to 17, including a child." It also says "destiny of the warplane crew is still unknown" This suggests, logically, they didn't die with jet but just willingly sacrificed the jet to parachute out, willingly, over Islamist areas, all to ... make the regime look bad and become "unknown destiny"? Or ... it was shot down. (and still maybe the 'hit the market' part was made up - or true ...)

Later: "it rose to 34 they are three children under the age of 16 and a citizen woman and 25 men over the age of 18, and five unidentified men the number of deaths who have died as a result of warplanes bombing and the warplane crash on the vegetable market area in ​​the city of Ariha, and the number of deaths is likely to rise because there are more than 60 critical wound and others are missing."

VDC has only 34 with that note, no rise, but divided 32 men and 2 boys - implied, one boy and one woman listed as men - but there are no apparent female names. One the 4 unidentified with two identified maybe? Repeat family names include Mahloub, Badawi, etc.

Jet Evidence

Getty Images/Anadolu Agency has a photo (detail at right) to support the claim "a Syrian regime warplane crashed into a market in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, according to a local civil defense official," an event with no mentioned shooting, but 35 civilian deaths.


More wreckage:
* same or similar piece from a different angle (high res) 

* Engine and other wreckage all together at the curb.

And so, in this earlier precedent for jets attacking markets, there was proof. Some flag-marked jet wreckage, next to melons. It looks arguably natural how it came together, but ... to me, the metal appears to be quite weathered, having spent some time outdoors in this same crumpled state. From the close-cropped photo, the size of material appears easily transported and planted. If there's much more of it, maybe not. If this jet was shot down long ago and had its wreckage saved as a prop and later dropped here to prove jet-on-market action ... what does that say about later alleged jet-on-market attacks?

attack site video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToagdK4e_fE
weathered bodies? Maybe dead 2 days already, placed in a van, now scattered realistically at the blast site? Other bodies seem clearly fresh in their injuries - why is one man injured mainly beneath pre-exisiting bandages torn open? Etc. 

Douma Market Attack: One Month Investigation Review

Douma Market Attack: One-Month Investigation Review
September 16, 2015
last update October 12

The Record on "Silence" and Truth

It was one month ago now in the Damascus suburb of Douma that, activists say, a Syrian Arab Air Force  fighter jet deliberately fired missiles into three crowded vegetable markets at mid-day. The strike reportedly killed at least 112 civilians and wounded hundreds, without hitting a single rebel fighter.

It was a popular theme on Twitter, some using the hashtag #Douma_Exterminated, that the crime was being ignored by the world at large (see mash-up below). Some commentators said the same, like the one at Middle East Monitor who said that "Assad’s regime committed its crime in light of complete international silence," which applies to all of "Al-Assad’s massacres against Syria’s land and people." Another, at Daily Sabah, lamented "the deafening silence of the world over the massacres is growing every day and slaughters in Syria hardly become news unless their perpetrator is ISIS." 

But of course that attack was pretty big news; anti-government activists, political and UN leaders, and the mainstream media all spoke up - in fact, unusually loudly - about this supposedly obvious fighter jet massacre. Public protests and candlelight vigils were held around the world to highlight the horrors of Douma. Human Rights Watch HRW) used the furor to call for an arms embargo on Syria, and underlined the point with a same-day missive comparing it to a market attack in Bosnia almost exactly 20 years earlier that triggered a NATO air war.

Crime writer Robert Lewis, who also latched onto the Bosnia angle, is in fact more on the mark to say  "the “international community”, as the West and its satellites are fond of calling themselves, was quick to voice its outrage, as it has been throughout its five year campaign for Syrian regime change." He cites a few prominent examples as reminders; the market attack "underscore that the Assad regime has lost legitimacy," one typical comment says, and must surrender to some ill-defined "transition."

It's clear that by "silent" the activists here meant "the world" was not yet bombing Syria to "stop Assad bombing his people." That's not silent, it's inactive. Or more accurately, the West and its allies are not as decisively involved as they were in, say, Libya, to stop the supposed killing of protesters. That's not semantics, just the rules that keep language meaningful. But these are increasingly optional in a world wracked by the well-intentioned wars and humanitarian instability driving waves of refugees around the world.

Also optional, at least in the case of this alleged market attack, is any effort to investigate the claims and establish the actual truth. None of those pillars of the "international community," so quick to blame Syria's government, has conducted or called for a proper investigation. Instead, they have seemingly agreed to already know just what happened. There is, in fact, a deafening silence from "the world" over the details of the attack. 

Nonetheless, some have been engaging in unofficial investigations from open sources. Eric Draister's early article The Douma Market Attack: a Fabricated Pretext for Intervention? (Counterpunch, August 21) was clearly hungered for and widely-read. For myself and some others, this has become another serious project now getting some useful results. This article is an attempted summary of our findings at one month in, relating points explained in Monitor posts linked here and at the masterlist, or at A Closer Look On Syria's subject page and talk page. It's hoped this will help clarify some details. For example, perhaps the biggest limitation Draister's article and others in a similar vein was the overriding suggestion there was no massacre, and the victims were rebel fighters killed in action. Those who latched onto this notion have naturally failed to raise any alarm bells over the laundered rebel massacre of civilians this might well be.

Attack Locations

The incident is now fairly well mapped. A photo, at right, shows four plumes of smoke and dust rising from four impacts, like activists reported to Human Rights Watch. This photo and a later video still of this same defined area establish the field of view. Here the plume origins line up fairly well with three impact areas that have been geolocated: the large el-Hal market, an intersection just west of that, and another market 250 meters west of el-Hal at a park (I call it "park market" though it seems mostly in the street itself). The graphic below shows where they are, mapped pretty exactly with locale details for video comparison. (see also video overview) From the mapping, the right-hand plume must be from a fourth, unplaced impact site to the east of the others (reportedly a third market was hit; pink dot, see below.)

Masses of produce, food carts, and stalls are seen in two damaged areas, and flipped vehicles and building debris are seen at the other. So we can say markets were hit by something, not just some rebel base nearby, as some intervention critics have speculated.

Draister's report cited just one video, at the el-Hal market, showing dead bodies in situ. But at least one other unplaced video is more convincing, showing a mangled boy, some wounded, and partial remains. But still, we have a similar picture; at least a handful of dead and some wounded - mostly younger men and older boys - seen at each spot. We know now there were multiple spots, and there were probably many more wounded and more killed between the sites. But it doesn't seem that any sizable buildings collapsed here, and with open-air victims alone it still seems doubtful it was anything close to the claimed 550 injured and 112+ dead.

Attack Time: After the Victims had Died!
All later accounts agree on the vague attack time of mid-day, or around noon. HRW heard from several sources, and all they had to go on was "about noon." But  by initial Twitter messages, there's no sign of awareness before 1:27 PM, suggesting it happened shortly before that. By the visuals cited, attack time isn't precise but around 1:00 at the earliest, maybe as late as 1:30. A best overall estimate, pending better clues, is 1:15-1:25 pm.

That time matters in context; consider how in the rebel narrative, attack victims had to be injured by those blasts, die from their injuries, stop bleeding and dry out, be collected, declared dead, and transported to one site prior to being photographed at that site. At right is an early photo by Douma's Syrian Civil Defense of the gathered bodies of around 40 men and boys. This was not published until 2:23 pm, but the best reading of the sunlight angle says the photo was taken in or near the span between 1:30 and 1:45 pm - or about 5 to 30 minutes after the estimated attack. (see here for explanation, analysis being revised as needed)

The implied process occurring in that time frame is simply not plausible. Those who were actually killed in the blast were obviously killed at that time. But this significant portion, at least, is not included in that. This could stand some double-checking and refinement, but it appears to be a smoking gun to prove that the victims were already dead, from something else, before the cover-story rockets were even fired.

Jet Evidence and Attack Details 

Relevant to the bulk of the dead or not, there were mid-day blasts at the markets. A Mig jet attack was claimed and widely accepted as the cause, but supporting evidence remains entirely absent. It seems no one at all filmed the jet before, during, or after its purported attack, and there's no contrail video. As far as I've seen, no one has shown or even claimed any jet-connected munition debris. And as noted, all sources in fact agree to not even specify the real attack time. 

One thing they can rely on is an alleged market attack in Ariha, Idlib province, with supposed proof. It was almost two weeks before the Douma massacre, on August 3, when a Mig allegedly fired into the public market at mid-day, then crashed into the market, without even being shot down. That sounds like an alleged suicide attack, another and expensive way for "Assad" to argue for a "no fly zone," illogical but proven by jet wreckage - possibly weathered (planted) - and with holes in it anyway, that was shown to the media at the site (see here).

Activists report that thermobaric or fuel-air explosive (FAE) weapons ("vacuum missiles") were used in Douma/ This appears consistent to us; tall, fast-rising plumes quickly cooled and started drifting west. A tall tree was left smoldering (see photo below, green box) They left apparent blast areas 30-40 meters wide, which can help deduce the weapon volume, and tell if it's even plausible that a jet fired any of the four.

Interestingly, there's an apparent arc of attack in the three impacts, as mapped above and again at right. Arcs of attack refer to surface warfare; it would be unusual for fighter jet hits taken on different swoops to wind up with such a pattern. That arc might suggest a surface rocket firing position to the south-southwest, range unknown.

The distances between the three placed impacts are roughly equal, and the plume photo suggests all four are equally spaced. Considering that and the pattern of the other three, the unplaced fourth hit will likely be in the same arc as well, so about 120 meters east-southeast of the last one (hence the pink dot continuing the arc, as shown). What's there seems like it could be a square version al el-Hal market, as shown above. Here, red is known and pink unknown, with lines suggesting possible angles for each impact (that depends on distance to the convergence point, and vice-versa - these impacts are worth more study).

Note 9/24: Petri found the video of impact 4, at a large steel-framed building just like the one at the pink dot, more in the middle of its roof.  See comments.

The one impact that, so far, can be read clearly for direction clues is the furthest west, and would be from the most southern direction. The impact dynamics at the park market clearly suggest it was fired from just barely west of due south, about 182.5 degrees. That line points to Mesraba outskirts or Beit Sawa (2.5-4 km out). The incoming angle may be fairly steep (not a massive forward trajectory), so fired from relatively near.

(Note 10/12: For more detail, see ACLOS: arc of attack? and/or Mapping the Arc of Attack)

Victims Analysis: Still Too Many Men

The ostensibly civilian victims is what the high-profile protests were all about; Assad's jets killed more than 100 civilians. And that included women and children - but just barely, like a token number. As Draister and others (like SyrPer, myself) noted in the first days was how opposition lists showed the attack killed, almost exclusively, adult males.

This has to be refined, slightly. First, by comparing lists, we've established perhaps 125 listed victims, with others left off. For example, there are still zero girls listed, to the four so far seen dead in images. There are at least 12-16 boys total between lists and images, mostly older boys, with at least two wrongly listed as men. And so there are about 20 children total, and 3 women as listed, but primarily the alleged jet attack killed about 100-115 adult males. The second-biggest segment - older boys - are also men by Islamist reckoning, which now prevails in Douma.

Douma's local council reported, as HRW passed on, "that the August 16 attacks killed a total of 112 and injured 550 civilians, 40 percent of them children, as well as 8 women." 8 wounded plus 3 dead equals 11 women effected, out of 662 total, at a total of 3 vegetable markets.  This remains unnatural and begs for an explanation that hasn't been clearly offered.

However we should note that, whatever caused this imbalance, it's not special to this case, but standard across all warplane shelling and all market attack deaths. The August 3 suicide attack mentioned above killed 34 men, 2 boys, and no females by VDC records. By the same, out of nearly 1,000 civilian market attack fatalities, 92% are male, and of those about 89% are adult (see here).

This aspect of the August 16 attack has been a core mystery and cause for question, and deserves some careful thought. Four strike areas means more room for victims - perhaps enough room that the numbers claimed make sense. Another thought that's logical, if not necessarily true: in a strained medical system, saving the lives of children might be top priority, and with some 400 or more men injured or dead, they tended to die untreated. 

But these points seem inadequate to explain the issue away. And further, if only 11 women were effected at all, it's logical that just as few girls were, and the imbalance came before the clinic. In that case, we have 3 kinds of reasons:
1) Only men and older boys - but not rebel fighters - do the market shopping. Mostly.
2) The excess of men are from a large batch of rebel fighters killed in combat or bombing raids, and perhaps laundered by inclusion with a smaller event at the markets.
3) the excess men as well as the boys, females, anyone not killed in the rocket attack were culled hostages, possibly religious enemies, with females "spared" (kept as chattel), names made up with mass grave erasure, "Assad" blamed and a "no-fly zone" called for.

Victim Analysis: Massacre Clues

As mentioned above, it seems at least 40 victims were already dead before the alleged jet attack even occurred. The clear alternative is those with the false cover story, or allies of theirs, had in fact killed these people for unknown reasons. There are some strong supporting clues pointing the same way.

As noticed early on, at least 95 and perhaps all of the victims were buried in mass graves, instead of the usual family-managed individual burial. Activists said they had to forgo regular burial and somehow even prayers, on account of government snipers who apparently shot at individual funerals and people praying (?). Yet they managed to dig one grave deep enough to easily bury a bus in. As Eric Draiter noted "a real investigation into this incident would probe into the use of mass graves for the purposes of hiding key information, namely the identities of those killed." It seems likely the victims were captives, with family either captured as well or otherwise afraid or unable to reclaim the body.

In such a situation, the provided victim names are questionable. However, it's odd how in alleged market attacks in Douma, several family names keep resurfacing, as often happens in other cases that seem to be laundered rebel massacres.

Consider the unusual case of the al-Tout family, with only 26 "martyrs" of this name listed as killed in the whole war, all but one from Douma. Yet among those are a boy and girl killed in a June 30 alleged market attack, and then in the August 16 attack, a man and a boy listed as a man died. The boy, Khaled al-Tout, is shown at right; he has a badly burned face, and was left exuding mucous, likely from the flammable material. Then 3 more al-Tout children and no adults died on August 30 - a boy and 2 girls, "due to the shelling." Considering how sharply that differs from the usual man-heavy pattern, this acute deviation must have some reason.

Images of the day's dead seem to show a disturbing segregation of death types beyond the means of a fighter jet's missile (see Victim Analysis and sub-posts). Men and older boys appear roughed-up, peppered by shrapnel or bullets, and are often smoke-stained - so they look like possible shelling victims, but with light and seemingly non-fatal damage. Some seen on video may have suspect throat injuries.

Many men have had their faces lightly burned and many have had their pants pulled down (see image above). Some boys have their faces burned even worse than the men (Khaled, above, unidentified, below), but their pants stayed up. Between these signs we have evidence for possible torture, attempts to conceal identities, disrespect to the dead, and age differentiation.

Note 9/24: The thermobaric/FAE possibility still needs considered carefully. It kills differently from regular shelling, and involves flammables, but may not fit what we see.  Goal for two-month update. 

Women are less clear; only one of the three is seen, with nothing visible but for an intact face, and some kind of bloody upper body injury. Three girls and a younger boy seen in different photos and claimed as victims do not look at all like dusty and tattered shelling victims, but all seemingly died from acute head injuries, in at least one case consistent with a massive blow from a sword.

One special case may provide a picture window into a chilling aspect of what really happened that day in Douma. A lightly-circulated photo shows a surviving victim of some August 16  "massacre" there. However, the image is clear (but explained here anyway) this preteen boy is no bombing victim. As shown in the crop here, his face is discretely burned raw. Left off is how his body was pulled violently and came apart slightly at the knees and totally at the elbows, with no other marks in between these horrifying signs of seemingly deliberate torture. He was most likely tied between two trucks that drove opposite ways and pulled him apart. And then they burned his face worse than anyone's, but he didn't even die just yet.

"The World" Expresses "Horror"
As one report from the day after the massacre put it, "UN officials, including peace envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, expressed horror at air strikes" on Douma's markets. "Horror" is always quoted, but no one shows just who used that word. But Mistura and the other officials cited didn't even know the half of the hell that is Douma, where everyone is said to love the occupying Army of Islam and its al-Qaeda allies. In fact, their supporters say, that's why Assad bombed the markets. It was a jet attack on Islamism itself, they would argue, that tore men away from families and tore the arms away from the one boy, that spared females, burned faces, and caused most of its deaths before even being launched.

These are some of the mysterious plagues the people of Douma live under as "the world" continues pushing for regime change in Syria. But the only thing Mistura and his ilk mention just has to further that same goal; "killing almost one hundred of its own citizens by a government is unacceptable in any circumstances," as we can see even if it's untrue. In saying this, he helped absolve the largely foreign - but non-governmental - terrorists that are most likely responsible.

Presumably, he did that unknowingly. How much else do these officials do in this presumably unknowing manner? And what role has that had in contributing to the often-horrifying death of hundreds of thousands of people since the regime change campaign began over four years ago?

Douma Market Attack: Other Market Attacks

Douma Market Attack: Other Market Attacks
September 11, 2015
(incomplete)
last edits (add Jeesi 1/20/15) Dec. 12.

In looking into the infamous alleged fighter jet attack on the Douma market, preceding incidents (plus a few later ones) seemed worth looking into. And then it seemed worth a total overview of attacks on souqs (public markets). I started this, as I often do, from perusing the martyrs database of the Douma-based Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria (VDC). Case-by-case, for some cases, I'll expand to other sources and analyze a bit. Patterns repeat, etc. (in progress).

Overview

Warplane shelling: Each alleged victim of this is one more argument for a Libya-style "no-fly zone" over Syria, and there have been a lot of them. Besides a presumably larger number wounded but managing to survive, the VDC currently lists 18,866 civilians killed by warplane shelling (this includes jets, helicopters, anything airborne). This includes Israeli and US/coalition strikes, but in small numbers - 17,000+ will be by "regime" forces, allegedly) That's ostensibly collatoeral damage in the course of targeting militants, but only 933 non-civilians were hit, as VDC records it. That nearly 20 civilians died to every fighter could make one wonder if the government is trying to kill civilians, as activists often suggest.

Of these nearly 19,000 dead civilians, there are 11,255 listed as men, 3,089 as boys. 2,706 as women, and 1,816 as girls.

Warplane + Market: the relevant part - all warplane shelling with "market" in notes = 525. Four of these are non-civilians. Of the 521 civilian dead, 438 are men. 40 are boys. Surprisingly, by 2015 standards, 29 are women, and  14 are girls - but only one girl so far in 2015.

Including warplanes and all other relevant causes + market =  978 civilians killed. For those hung up on the all-male aspect for the August 16 attack (includes me), it's standard. 803 market victims are men, 97 are boys (so exactly 900 mare ales, or 92% of the total), and they list 55 women and 23 girls killed.

Other + Market: There are 457 minus warplane - and the total is off by one (not sure why). Causes: shelling, explosion, and for good measure, shooting - mainly by the "regime," they say or imply, in presumably deliberate attacks on markets. The fatalities as listed have been 365 men, 57 boys, 26 women, and 9 girls.

Other Other: 74 civilians executed etc. with "market" in notes - mostly found near a market. These don't count. But there may be an odd case or two in there. No cross-over between market and "Chemical and toxic gases" or "other".

Bakery Attacks: This is about the same concept, not sure why I didn't start with it as well. From what I've seen (Halfaya, Dec. 2013, at least) the patterns are largely the same. May expand to cover this as well. There's also aid distribution center attacks, etc. ... so it may stay just on the bombings of the souqs. But for what it's worth, a starter at least: 288 martyrs with "bakery" in the notes. Of these, 279 are listed as civilians, 191 of those as men. A further 40 entries (with likely overlap) have the more vague "bread" in the notes. 39 of these are listed as civilian, of whom 25 are men

Gender note: Across the board, the gender distribution is notably lopsided for usual market behavior in the Arab world, and it's cumulative over the whole conflict (at least from late 2012, but mainly in the last year). Market shopping is usually a task for women, but these of course aren't usual times. Is this in fact market behavior in Islamist areas (almost universally where theses attacks are alleged)? Only men and older boys - but never fighters - are allowed to shop in any number?

The VDC and allied sources like the LCC sometimes do not have female victims reported to them right away, and list them later if ever. But that doesn't seem common enough to explain this, and at least some cases are supported by images of about that many men and few if any females. So, is it some low quota on females in public? Or is it the chivalry of the munitions that explains their being spared? Or ... are these mainly laundered rebel fighters, as many speculate, perhaps mixed-in to real market attack death toll? Or ... is someone killing the men and keeping (most of) their females, and just blaming made-up or exaggerated market attacks? Or is it, as seem likely at this scale, some mix of these causes (the more logical ones)?

General patterns for these victims, seen in the August 16 attack, that tends to be repeated enough to call ganeral in general: Usually the victims are all from the town attacked - few if any displaced identities, which would be unusual. In 2015, the pattern is usually a couple of boys, about ten times as many men, and hardly any females killed at all. Earlier, it seems slightly more mixed. As a start point, these are all civilians - but expanding it to include rebels adds no one in almost every case. There is some family grouping, at least one set of repeat Douma victims popping up already (between June 30 and August 16, 2015), a victim in Idlib with a rare name connecting other incidents, and many areas with nothing known yet to correlate or no checking. There are very few victims with photos provided, alive or dead. All have the same generic videos, no details, ages, etc. (some notes like "known as Abo somebody"). And little to no variation from one entry to the next in that vagueness. (any variations in these patterns and a few specifics will be noted for each, as I check them out.)

Regime Forces Killed in Market Attacks
This is an odd and small but existent category. In case it grows, here's the VDC's list for regime forces fatalities (a different database from martyrs) with "market" in the notes. At 2 entries long, both can be considered here. Both are adult men, status: Regime's Army, rank: Civilian (whatever that means - unclear. Sometimes it seems to mean Alawite civilian).
* Mazen Abdullah al-Swedany Province: Daraa. Area: Nawa status: civilian.Photo, Facebook link. Date of death  2013-11-03. Martyrdom location: Damascus: Zablatani. Cause of Death: Shelling. Notes:  due to FSA shelling on Hal market.
*  Hamadi Steif al-Eid, age 65 Province: Hasakeh. Date of death: 2015-05-30. Martyrdom location   (blank) Cause of Death: Shelling. Notes: Due to mortar shelling by ISIS in Hassakeh Market

So we can see in the records that anti-government forces have attacked markets ... and killed exactly two "regime army" civilians. Neither of these documented violations caused any martyr-type fatalities,  (no crossover with the incidents listed below - Bab's market was hit by the regime the same day as Hasaka's was hit by ISIS, but they're far apart places, so it's ... a coincidence?). And so, it's on to the 978 civilians ... or those killed by Assad, or ... the ones their rebel sources insisted were not killed by any stripe of rebels ... as far as I know. Whatever. On to the "martyrs," nearly 1,000 of them.

Attacks Listed

Scanning the big VDC list of 525 victims  of aerial attacks on markets and 457 other market victims, this is  an approximately complete chronolgical list of incidents/dates/locales. Links and details will come in sections for certain cases anyway (especially for those already covered). Aerial ("warplane") attacks will be marked W. The August 12, 2015 Douma incident is actually not included by VDC in that total, and is added by me based on market connection (see section below).

* Tartous  Alsafsafa/ Al Sawda Village/ Saheal Akkar  2011-04-23  Shooting 3 men (see section)
* Daraa  Tafas  2011-05-08  Shooting 1 man
* Homs  Bayadeh  2011-11-21  Shooting 1 man
* Homs  Khalidiya  2012-02-21  Shooting  1 man
* Homs   2012-05-15  Shooting 1 man "Due to his wounded that he got in an explosion in Tabaqah Market"
* Daraa  Dael  2012-05-19  Shooting  1 girl, age 9 "after the regime army checkpoint in the market square targeted a civilian car, where a family was riding." video (shot in chest, opp. activists have the body, rest of family app. escaped and drove here?)
* Raqqa  Tabaqah  2012-06-02  Explosion 1 man
* Idlib  Idleb the City  2012-07-15  Shooting  1 boy
* Damascus  Qaboun  2012-07-21  Shelling 1 man
* Aleppo  Masaken Hananou : Al-Inzarat Neighborhood  2012-08-09  Shelling 6 dead
* W Deir Ezzor  Bokamal  2012-09-03 - 1 man
* Idlib  Maaret Al-Nouman  2012-09-15  Shelling  1 girl
* Aleppo  Kalaseh    2012-10-13  Shelling  3 Attar men - one later
* W Deir Ezzor  Mayadin 2012 10-15 - man, woman, boy
* W Deir Ezzor  Mayadin 2012 11-02 shelling 2 boys
* Aleppo  Maysalon  2012-11-12  Shooting  1 man
* Damascus Suburbs  Sbeinei  2012-11-19  Shelling  1 woman
* Aleppo  Nayrab  2012-11-25  Shooting  4 unidentified men
* W Aleppo  Manbej  2012-11-28 - 6 men
* Aleppo  Haidaria  2012-11-30  Shelling 1 man
* Aleppo  Safira  2012-12-01  Shelling  7 men, 1 boy
* Aleppo  Helek  2012-12-02  Shelling  2 men 2 boys
* un-checked span ...
* Daraa  Tafas  2012-12-29  Shelling
* Hama  Hilfaya  2013-01-03  Shelling
* Aleppo  Deir Hafer  2013-01-23  Shelling
* Aleppo  Sfaireh  2013-05-06  Shelling
* Idlib  Saraqib  2013-05-17  Shelling
* Aleppo  Nile Street  2013-05-26  Shooting
* Daraa  Namr  2013-06-08  Shelling
* Damascus  Midan  2013-06-09  Shelling
* Hama  Al-Fayhaa neighborhood  2013-07-14  Shooting
* Aleppo  Sfaireh  2013-07-20  Shelling
* Idlib  Ariha  2013-07-21  Shelling (see section)
* Damascus  Yarmuk Camp  2013-07-31  Shelling   1 boy dead
* Aleppo  Sukkari neighborhood  2013-08-06  Shelling
* Aleppo  Bab Road neighborhood  2013-08-20  Shelling
* Idlib  Ariha  2013-08-21  shelling
*  Idlib  Darkoush  2013-10-14  explosion - 38 dead (see section)
* Damascus Suburbs  Wadi Barada 2013-10-25  Explosion - 152 dead (see section)
* W Raqqa  Raqqa City: Kurnehs  2013-10-26  
* W Aleppo Bab   2013-11-30
* W Aleppo Bab   2013-12-01
* Aleppo  Karam Muayassar 2014-01-28
* W Deir Ezzor  Al-Sour village  2014-02-05  - 1 man
* Damascus Suburbs   Yabrud: Ras Al-Ayn     2014-02-07
* Damascus Suburbs  2014-02-18/20
* Idlib     Shaikh Barakeh - Sinjar - Telminis      2014-02-27
* Daraa     Nawa     2014-03-11
* W Damascus Suburbs  Qalamoon: Ras Al-Maara Village  2014-03-16
* Damascus Suburbs     Yalda  2014-03-18
* Damascus Suburbs     Jeroud  2014-04-20
* W Aleppo  Atarib  2014-04-24 
* W Aleppo  Hulluk  2014-05-01
* Idlib     Maarat Nassan  2014-05-28
* Idlib     Maarat Nassan  2014-05-29
* Damascus Suburbs 2014-05-31 
* Damascus Suburbs     Douma  2014-06-07
* Deir Ezzor     Mayadeen  2014-06-14
* Damascus Suburbs  Douma  2014-06-15 
* Hasakeh 2014-07-22   
* Damascus Suburbs  Zabdeen  2014-07-24   
* Aleppo  Izaz   2014-07-26  
* W Aleppo Bab  2014-09-11
* W Hasakeh  Jeesi Village  2015-01-20
* W Aleppo  Bab  2015-01-29
* Damascus Suburbs  Douma  2015-02-09 
* W Aleppo  Bab  2015-05-30 
* W Damascus Suburbs  Douma  2015-06-30 (see section)
* W Idlib  Zardna  2015-07-09  
* W Aleppo  Bab  2015-07-13  (stray, day before)
* W Idlib  Ariha  2015-08-03
* Hama  Bweda  2015-08-08
* Idlib     Maart Numan  2015-08-08
* W Idlib  Idlib City  2015-08-11
** Damascus Suburbs Douma  2015-08-12  (see section)
* W Damascus Suburbs  Douma  2015-08-16
* W Daraa Dara Al-Balad 2015-08-16 Warplane shelling  
* Damascus Suburbs Douma  2015-08-23
* W Damascus Suburbs  Ein Tarma  2015-08-31

Some Incident Details
(in reverse chronological order)


August 16, 2015
118 listed (110 men, two died later) ... see masterlist for lots of details and analysis.

Same day, 7 men from Daraa al-Balad plus 1 next-day "Due to helicopter shelling of the local market with explosive barrels"

August 12, 2015, Douma

VDC lists 25 dead under the note  "Several people martyred in a massacre due to regime's army air forces' several raids on the city." 24 men, 1 boy. No videos. Victim names shared with other Douma-area market attacks: al-Sheikh, Arbash, Masri, al-Daj, Dalati x2, Al-Ali ... Not mentioned, a market was involved: some Twitter photos from the time: tomatoes, blood on flatbread (staged?) victims (graphic).  Recycled: mangled boy next to motorcycle - iconic shouting girl (as branded as 16th)  seen on the 12th, sitting and shouting, same photo re-used. (some others recycled, some lightly, others more heavily)

August 3, 2015 Idlib

See also "Massacre of the Jet")
VDC lists 34 dead under the note "Massacre of the Jet, several people martyred due to the falling of a Meg Jet on the local market in the city." 32 men, 2 boys, no females (listed). Generic Videos, not reviewed: 1 - 2 - 3. Ariha, Idlib province  was recently conquered, well after Idlib city, and will be another Islamist occupation like in Douma. War News Updates reports 27 civilians were killed and dozens wounded "after a Syrian army fighter jet crashed into a marketplace in the Syrian town of Ariha in Idlib province." Citing Reuters citing locals, they say civilians were mainly killed, and "The plane had dropped a bomb on the main Bazaar street at low altitude only seconds before it crashed," Ghazal Abdullah, a resident who was close to the incident, told Reuters." No shooting is mentioned in the crash, but presumable.

Getty Images/Anadolu Agency has a photo (detail at right) to support the claim "a Syrian regime warplane crashed into a market in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, according to a local civil defense official," an event with no mentioned shooting, but 35 civilian deaths. The SOHR reported that the jet was not shot down, so ... all damage should be from its bombs or, less-obvious to me ... are they saying the jet bombed the market then crashed in without being shot down? The SOHR may be hearing - from their remaining (Islamist) sources in Ariha - that regime jets are suicide-attacking markets now, just to kill civilians and make an expensive and illogical new case for a "no fly zone."

And so, in this earlier precedent for jets attacking markets, there was proof. Some flag-marked jet wreckage, next to melons. It looks arguably natural how it came together, but ... to me, the metal appears to be quite weathered, having spent some time outdoors in this same crumpled state. From the close-cropped photo, the size of material appears easily transported and planted. If there's much more of it, maybe not. If this jet was shot down long ago and had its wreckage saved as a prop and later dropped here to prove jet-on-market action ... what does that say about later alleged jet-on-market attacks?

Damascus Suburbs  Douma  2015-06-30  
VDC lists 12 dead - unusually gender-mixed, 7 men, 3 boys, 1 woman, 1 girl. The girl and one boy are named al-Tout, names of a boy and man killed in the August 16 market attack there. The names Seyroul and Shehab at least also appear in both attacks.






Hasakeh  Jeesi Village  2015-01-20 VDC lists 42 civilians killed, no non-civilians. Notes: "Several people martyred in a massacre due to the regime helicopter forces' shelling with explosive barrels of the sheeps market in Khansaa village"  38 men, 4 women, no children (possible error). Family names: Matar x17 (all 4 women, 13 men, all children listed as adult, unlikely). 13 are unidentified, maybe more Matars for all we know. The other 12 are  all men of  mixed names with no repeats. Matars are mostly from " Jeesi Village" but died inTal Hmes. Unidentified are all from Qamishli: Tal Hmes.Mixed-names from villages Zarqaa, Abo Jeren, Wawiyeh, unspecified, but all died in Tal Hmes, after the bombing Khansaa (??)

Generic Video	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRVQuxbKMyU&feature=youtu.be
Generic Video	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEjKv2DnZyQ
Generic Video	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Q9wq21l0o

Wadi Barada, Damascus Suburbs 2013-10-25  Explosion - 152 dead - 132 men, 17 boys, 2 women, 1 girl. "Dozens of civilians were killed as a result of a car bomb explosion in front of the "Osama bin Zaid" mosque, in Wadi Barada main market, after the "Friday prayers"‬" Location: northwest edge of Damascus. It killed 132 men and 20 others, besides an unclear number who presumably survived. This strange case, covered here at ACLOS, has strange link to another mosque car-bombing nearby a month earlier, an odd victim who allegedly died in the second one a month after being injured in the first- or was he the bomb-maker? Further, by victim names and locale, these both might connect to the Moadamiya portion of the August 21 Ghouta chemical attack (see here).

Darkoush, Idlib 2013-10-14  explosion - 38 dead - 32 men, 4 boys, 2 women, 0 girls. "Car bomb attack that left several dead civilians in a massacre in Darkoush Market" The men killed include "Abdo Ali al-Qaq" a rare family name with its link to a later alleged chlorine attack and more (see here)

Idlib Ariha  2013-07-21  Shelling
26 dead (22 men, 2 boys, 2 women) "Massacre claimed the lives of many of the martyrs by regime forces shelling of the city's main market" (was government-held)Generic Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vAxg3Kt2U&feature=youtu.be Generic Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhU4uHPEhTs&feature=youtu.be 

Tartous  2011-04-23 - this, just a month into protests, killing citizens from calm Tartous, with shooting .... that's not the usual pattern. VDC lists 3 men from Alsafsafa/ Al Sawda Village/ Saheal Akkar killed by shooting, named Hanash, Shaheen, and Issa. Martyrdom location damascus- Jobar. They were far out of town. Notes: Die while he was in his way to Sook Alhal Market at damascus. All three are listed as farmers, 2 aged 30, one unspecified. Tartous is an Alawite-majority district. They were safe at home but were shot dead in Jobar. Hmmm....