On 2 and 15 February 2022, indiscriminate rocket attacks rocked the cities of al-Bab and A’zaz in northern rural Aleppo, killing 11 civilians and wounding 31 others, including women and children. The attack of 2 February on al-Bab city coincided with a Turkish bombardment on Ayn Dewar village of Al-Malikiyah/Derek district in al-Hasakah, leading to casualties and displacements.
Details of the 02 February Attacks on al-Bab City
On 2 February 2022, at approximately 2:00 pm local time, rockets hit five sites in al-Bab city, leaving eight deaths and 24 injuries among civilians. STJ collected substantial information on this attack and forwarded it with open source images and videos to an arms expert to determine the type and the range of the rockets used. The expert concluded that the rockets were most likely BM-21 Grad.
Sources from military observatories of armed opposition groups testified to STJ that the rockets landed on al-Bab fired from a rocket launcher set in an area adjacent to Sha`alah village. Sources noted that this area was fully controlled by the People’s Defense Units YPG before the latter allowed the deployment of Syrian and Russian forces in it. Furthermore, sources confirmed that the area has a joint military operations room, which makes it impossible to identify the attack perpetrator.
A source in the Syrian National Army (SNA) testified to STJ: “Initial reports on any shelling on al-Bab often blame the SDF, since the firing usually originates from its areas. However, there are regime forces stationed in the SDF areas and they were responsible for most of the shelling on the city.”
Rockets landed on five sites in al-Bab city; on the main street opposite a local restaurant, on al-Bareed Street near the Police Headquarters building, on the al-Jadeed Street at al-Omar exchange shop, at the Center roundabout near a prosthetics center, and on a local market at a perfume store.
The shelling on al-Bab wounded 24 civilians, including three children and four women, and killed eight others; we identified four of them, who are; Zakaria Rajab, Taha Dabek, Muhammed Abd al-Razzaq Sheikh Issa and Ahmed al-Ali.
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