Several years of monitoring alleged Russian airstrikes in Syria reveals a pattern of indiscriminate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. In an analysis of 3303 videos documenting alleged Russian airstrikes from 116 sources between 30 September 2015 and 9 September 2018, Syrian Archive has identified 1418 incidents in which Russian forces allegedly targeted civilians or…
Satellite imagery shows some new developments at Iran’s Mashhad civil-military airfield. A new surface to air missile (SAM) site has been constructed on the north side of the runway to support Khatam al-Anbia’s S-300PMU-2 deployments. Between 2017-2018, Iran jumped the S-300 system to the airbase on three occasions which coincided with visits by Iran’s Supreme Leader…
In September of 2008 I went to Syria for a few weeks. I only had two contacts in the country, and one of them was F, a middle class Christian and the prominent owner of local bakeries and a local pizzeria who lived in Syria’s Western province of Latakia. I had never met F before,…
On October 8, a photograph spread throughout WhatsApp showing Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist living in Turkey, entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul through a rear entrance. He has not been seen since, with credible reports that he was either murdered or kidnapped by Saudi officials. Later, a video that this photograph was taken from…
The UAE has added eight new aircraft shelters and a weapon storage area to a reserve airfield on the coast, commercial satellite imagery shows. The activity suggests that the UAE may maintain a detachment at the reserve airfield to rapidly respond to potential threats. Assets routinely deployed at al-Hamra include the AH-64 Apache and the…
This report analyses the 6,627 pro-government combat deaths in the Syrian Civil War that the author recorded between March 20, 2017 and June 30, 2018. The first half of the report examines the origins of the casualties and where they died while the second half is dedicated to a comprehensive overview of the major offensives…
Two U.S.-built primary satellite links and a ground control station (GCS) were relocated to the United Arab Emirates’ al-Safran airbase situated south of Madinat Zayed, imagery from Planet Labs shows. They likely belong to the recently acquired RQ-1E Predator-XP UAV the UAE purchased in 2013. The Predator XP is the unarmed licensed export variant of…
Alors que les préoccupations internationales grandissent au sujet de l’utilisation d’armes chimiques par la Syrie, de nouvelles preuves de leur utilisation par l’armée syrienne continuent à émerger. Le matin du 1er février 2018, des activistes locaux ont rapporté l’utilisation de roquettes chimiques remplies de chlore envoyées sur l’ouest de la ville de Douma, située à…
Un rapport précédent d’Eliot Higgins a rassemblé les preuves concernant au moins deux bouteilles de gaz jaunes associées aux attaques du 7 avril 2018 à Douma, en Syrie. Ce rapport examine les similitudes avec les précédentes attaques qui ont impliqué du chlore en Syrie, et dénombre les bilans humains rapportés depuis Douma allant de 43…
Iraq is on fire. Since late June, media has reported on wildfires in northern parts of Iraqi Kurdistan among the border with Turkey, along the border with Iran in the northeast and in the southeast of Iraq at the Hawizeh marshes, bordering Iran. A hazardous cocktail of climate change-induced increased summer heat, water shortages, military…
