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First: Tuesday’s Attacks

On Tuesday 25 Nov 2014, Raqqa city witnessed several air strikes launched by two warplanes

of the Syrian regime forces. They systematically, deliberately and indiscriminately targeted the

city’s civilian residents, infrastructure, places of worship, in addition to educational, historical

and public places; including places that are usually crowded especially during noon hours when

the residents head toward the markets.. The attacks resulted in carnages, and the fall of more

than (220) martyrs, as well as a hundred injuries, according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent

and a doctor who was at one of the hospitals that received the victims on that day. The Viola-

tions Documentation Center (VDC)  documented more than (85) victims, using several local

sources, coordination committees and eyewitnesses, which the VDC contacted via Skype, fol-

lowing its own methodology of verication. A list of the names of civilian victims is compiled

and enclosed in this report.

One of the city’s media activists, who was an eyewitness to the event, told the VDC that the

rst attack, which was launched by a MIG warplane that appeared from the south-west side of

the city, took place at about 11:30 am, when a missile fell near a warehouse of the Consumer

Foundation, known as the Yellow Warehouse because of the color of its façade color, in the

western side of the city. Eyewitness also indicated that the nearest military headquarter of ISIL

was more than 800 m away from the targeted area. This attack resulted in ve injuries.

However, the second attack was the ercest and deadliest , according to the same eyewitness,

who believed that it was carried out by Sukhoi warplane as it was larger than the rst one with

wider wings. This attack targeted the entrance to the industrial city, east of Raqqa, near the

trafc lights and opposite the Shrine of Sheikh Owais al-Qarni. First, a missile fell on the area

killing and injuring dozens of people. When civilians present nearby rushed to rescue victims,

another missile hit the area causing a horric massacre, killing and injuring. over (150) peo-

 ple.. An eyewitness related the great number of victims with the nature of the area itself, which

connects the city to its eastern countryside; a place that is usually crowded and full of cars and

oil barrels.

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As for the third attack, it targeted al-Henni Mosque at about 12:15 pm. A missile hit the minaret

of the mosque causing its immediate fall. This area had been targeted by two missiles launched

 by the Syrian government air forces two weeks before. The attack not only destroyed the min-

aret but also a part of the mosque’s roof and caused several injuries.

 A Special VDC Image of Henni Mosque’s Minaret after It was Targeted

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Although it was away from any military targets, in the fourth attack two missiles hit Muham-

mad Othman’s house near a long-abandoned music institute in Mashlab neighborhood destroy-

ing the house and killing six members of the same family (two men and four women).

The Fifth and last attack of the day targeted the public market opposite the National Museum

south of the city, according to an eyewitness. This museum is a historical building dating back

to the Ottoman era. Because of the electricity generators and the several oil shops nearby, the

attack was extremely damaging with more than (51) people killed and over a hundred injured,

according to one of the doctors who witnessed the incident. The witness also stressed to the

VDC that he had inspected several targeted areas and that when he went to the Syrian Arab

Red Crescent branch, he found more than 40 completely burned and charred bodies put in the

 building’s yard for families to identify them.

 An image of the Targeted National Museum (Source of image: Raqqa News Network)

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Second: Thursday’s Attacks

In spite of the numerous international ‘condemnations’ of the attacks that took place on Tuesday

25 Nov 2014, the government warplanes launched other attacks one day after. On Thursday,

27 Nov 2014, warplanes rst launched an attack  at about 10:30 am targeting a place near the

Othmans’ house in al-Mashlab neighborhood causing no casualties as residents had evacuated

the targeted house after Tuesday’s attacks. The second attack targeted the house of Judge Mu-

hammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal, near the Engineering Faculty, causing the deaths of the judge’s

wife, son Dawood and his wife, in addition to two of the judge’s grandchildren. Many others

were injured in the attack.. The third attack targeted a girls’ high school south of the city with

two missiles that fell in the school’s yard without causing any casualties. A few minutes later,

two other missiles fell on the southern bank of the Euphrates without causing any casualties

either. The fourth attack targeted an inhabited building in a well-known commercial street in

al-Bayatra neighborhood, in the center of Raqqa. The attack completely destroyed the third and

the fourth oors of the building. Casualties were limited to average injuries as most of the resi-

dents had rushed to the shelters when they heard the sounds of the warplanes. In this respect, an

eyewitness stated to the VDC that the attack caused massive destruction and that shrapnel ew

all around which was attributed, according to the witness, to using a special kind of explosive

 A Satellite Image showing the areas targeted on 25 Nov 2014

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rockets that are rarely used by the regime forces. The witness added:

“In Raqqa, we don’t have any ambulances currently as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

(ISIL) conscated them all.. Thus, relief operations are carried out only by the Red Crescent,

which lack medical personnel and supplies. The attacks burned more than 20 cars and de-

stroyed several buildings and shops. The regime concluded the attacks of Thursday by targeting

Dar al-Salam schoolyard to the west of the city. Luckily, no injuries were reported.”

All in all, the attacks on the industrial area completely or partially destroyed over 50 houses,

and damaged more than 100 vehicles.. The destruction also included 2 schools, a mosque and

a museum.

Third: Legal Assessment”

It is commonly accepted that the acts of the Syrian regime forces against the Syrian civilian

 population are to be weighed from the prism of the law governing armed conicts of non-in-

ternational character 1. Furthermore, relevant rules of international law are fully applicable

to the situation in Syria, in particular international human rights law and the relevant rules of

international humanitarian law. Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions (1949) is

applicable in all Syrian territories and on all actors of the conict2. In addition all parties to the

conict are bound by customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in armed

conict of non-international character.

The principle according to which “parties to the conict must at all times distinguish between

civilians and combatants” is the cornerstone of customary international humanitarian law. At-

tacks may only be directed against combatants. Attacks must not be directed against civilians3.

This principle is also embedded in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (1949), and

is thus applicable in non-international armed conicts.

In addition, parties to all types of armed conicts are prohibited in international humanitarian

law from targeting civilian objects4. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2675

(XXV), specied that “dwellings and other installations that are used only by civilian popula-

tions,” and “places or areas designated for the sole protection of civilians such as hospital zones

1- Syria: ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent maintain aid effort amid increased fighting, Operational Update (July 17, 2012).2- The Syrian Arab Republic has ratified the four Geneva Conventions on 02.11.1953.

3- ICRC 2005, Customary International Humanitarian Law, vol. 1, Henckaerts, J.-M., Doswald-Beck, L., & Alvermann, C. eds. Cambridge Univer-

sity Press, Cambridge, at p. 3 (Rule 1).

4- Id., at p. 25 (Rule 7).

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or similar refuges,” should not be the object of military operations5. The ICRC restatement of

customary international humanitarian law cited consistent State practice treating as prima facie

civilian objects in all types of conicts “cities, villages, residential areas, dwellings, buildings

and houses and schools, civilian means of transportation, hospitals, medical establishments and

medical units, historic monuments, places of worship and cultural property6.”

The prohibition on targeting civilian populations and objects in armed conicts affects the way

the parties to an armed conicts can conduct the hostilities and the types of weapons they can

use. In particular, indiscriminate attacks are prohibited in all types of conicts.

Rule 12 of the ICRC restatement of customary international humanitarian law provides that:

“Indiscriminate attacks are those: (a) which are not directed at a specic military objective; (b)

which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specic military

objective; or (c) which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be

limited as required by international humanitarian law; and consequently, in each such case, are

of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction7.”

The attacks between November 25 and 27, 2014 on the city of Raqqa, as documented in this

statement are in all likelihood executed by the Assad regime’s air force planes, as conrmed

 by numerous eyewitnesses who recognized at least two types of jets, namely Sokhoi and MiG,

which are known to be owned and used by the Syrian regime’s air force. Such attacks, in an

area of operation which is already invested by the international Coalition’s military offensive

over northern Syria, can hardly be carried out without the presumed tacit consent of the coali-

tion aerial surveillance resources mobilized in the area. All the targeted areas in all the attacks

are by nature, location and purpose civilian from the perspective of the applicable international

humanitarian law

More specically, the attack document in this statement targeted civilian dwellings in urban and

residential neighborhood (e.g. attack in the Moushalab neighborhood (25/11/2014, 12:15PM;

27/11/2014, 10:30AM); al-Bayatira neighborhood (27/11/2014, 10:30AM)); attack on the res-

idence of Judge Mohamed Abdelaziz al-Buhbal (27/11/2014, 10:30AM)); schools (attack on

Dar al-Salam preparatory school (27/11/2014, 10:30AM); places of warship (e.g. attack on

Al-Hinni Mosque (25/11/2014, 12:15PM)); as well as densely populated areas, such as the at-

tack on the popular street market facing the National Museum (25/11/2014, 12:15PM). The Na-

5- Resolution 2675 (XXV). Basic Principles for the Protection of Civilian Populations in Armed Conflicts (December, 9 1970), UN, General Assembly.

6- ICRC 2005, Customary International Humanitarian Law, at p. 34 (footnotes omitted).

7- Id., at p. 40.

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tional Museum, which sustained damages, is itself a historical monument. This is also the case

in the attack targeting the entrance of the Industrial City on November 25, 2014 (11:30 AM),

which was compounded by a second attack minutes later, by targeting from the air, the scarce

medical units that rushed to the place, together with further gatherings of civilians, resulting in

heavy casualties of civilians. All casualties, from all these attacks, as the Violation Documen-

tation Center was able to document, are civilians.

Such attacks form a pattern of attacking civilian places and populations. The consistency of the

attacks on densely populated areas between November 25 and November 27, 2014 in Raqqa,

makes it more likely that the regime air force was not directing the attack at any specic mili-

tary objective. The fact that a second round of aerial bombardment took place targeting impor-

tant gatherings of civilians at the entrance of the Industrial City on November 25, 2014, stands

as a chilling example of such pattern.

Under to customary international humanitarian law, indiscriminate attacks on civilians are se-

rious violations of international humanitarian law8. It accordingly constitutes a war crime9,

which carries the individual criminal responsibility of the commanders who gave the orders

for such attacks, as well as anyone who has committed or facilitated the attacks that qualify

as war crimes, and anyone who has assisted, or has aided and abetted them. The Rome Statute

of the International Criminal Court makes it a war crime, in the context of a non-international

armed conict, to “intentionally direct attacks against the civilian population as such or against

individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities” (article 8 §2 (e) (ii)). In a great number

of cases, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted war

criminals for the indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population10.

Finally, the incidents documented herein are likely to constitute crimes against humanity as de-

ned by the case law of international criminal tribunals and article 7 of the Rome Statute, inso-

far as the killing of civilians, occurring in the context of widespread or systematic attack against

the civilian population of Raqqa, as documented above, may constitute “murder”, which is one

of the underlying offences of crimes against humanity.

8- Id., at p. 599.

9- Id., at p. 568 (Rule 156).10- ICTY, Prosecutor v. Milan Martic, Trial Chamber Judgement (2007), § 472. See also ICTY, Prosecutor v. Tihomir Blaškić, Trial Chamber Judge-

ment (2000), § 512 and ICTY, Prosecutor v. Stanislav Galic, Trial Chamber Judgement (2003), § 596.

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A- Tuesday 25 Nov 2014-11-29

1-Ibrahim Abdulka Hindawi

2- Samer Muhammad Sultan, born in al-Hol area. His mother is Kamleh Abbas.

3- Bassam Dahhamal-Shommari. He was killed in Pullman Garage

Fourth: A List of the Victims Documented and Veried by VDC

(Source of image: Raqqa News Center)

Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

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4- Hammoud Alloush al-Khatab.

5-Mahmoud Tarboush, 17 years, Seif al-Dawla neighborhood

6-Ali Tarboush, 20 years, Seif al-Dawla neighborhood

7-Hamadeh al-Barazi, whose mother died by a “stoke” after she heard about the death of her

son, according to some sources. (Other sources said his name is Ahmad al-Barazi)

8-Ramez Saad al-Din Abboush, married and has two sons. He was killed with his two sons.

9-Saad Ramez Saad al-Din Abboush

10-Fahed Ramez Saad al-Din Abboush

11-Ammar Aziz

12- Hassan Khalaf, 30 years

13-Muhannad Ahmad Badran

14- Khalil Abdullah Sulaiman, 13 years

15- The son of Abdullas Rasheed Swailem, 10 years (he remained anonymous)

16- Ahmad Sobhi Owera

17- Ibrahim al-Najm Ebeido, nicknamed by Bahri, 47 years

18- Saher Allawi, known by Abu al-Allawi. He was killed in the Museum area

19-Bashar Hasan Ali

20- Mustafa Ahmad Hussein al-Fakkhash21- Faisal Saleh al-Hamoud

Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

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22-Hammoud Alloush al-Khatab

23-Khaled al-Hammoud

24-Mahmoud Muhammad Abbas

25- Omar Himzawi

26- Muhammad al-Sheikh, from Mashlab

27- Hamzah al-Saleh

28-Muhammad al-Faraj

29-Mu’atasim al- Mahmoud

30- Hussam al-Issa

31- Khalil al-Muslim

32- Abdullah al-Muhammad

33-Huzaifa Khalaf al-Ibrahim

(a different person from

Huzaifa Khalaf al-Ghanem).

34-Rasheed al-Rasheed

35-Ali Aqeeli

36-Ibrahim al-Musa

37-Abdullah Salem al-Hajaij

38-Ibrahim al-Najm al-Abyo, 47 years

39-Ismael al-Salama

40-Muhammad Farawati

41-Zuhdi al-Sultan

42-Osama al-Jerd

43-Ahmad Mustafa Muhammad

45-Ahmad Khatab

46-Mustafa Nwairan

47-Bashar Hasan al-Ali

48-Ahmad Sulaiman al-Tayeb

49- Huzaifa Khalaf al-Ghanem

50- A woman of Othman Family (1)

51- A woman of Othman Family (2)

52- A woman of Othman Family (3)

53- A woman of Othman Family (4)

54-A young man of Othman Family (1)

55- A young man of Othman Family (2)

56-Muhannad Badran

57-Hasan Ibrahim Hasan

58-Ibrahim Ibrahim Hasan

59-Khalil Jaber 

60-Muhammad Yaser Tahseen

61-Khalil al-Shalal Abu Haitham, about fty

  years old

62-Khalil al-Haj Daher Abu Haitham.

He was killed in the massacre of the

Industrial area

63-Jasem Muhammad Ali Jasem

64-Muhamad Mustafa Tayeb

65-Khalaf Hasan Ibrahim Issa al-Ghanem

66-Faisal Ali al-Radi

67-Ismael al-Abd al-Ali

68-Hussein al-Abd al-Ghattas

69-Abdulsalam Muhammad Sarhan

70-Muhammad Yaser Tahseen

(the son of the photographer Tahseen).

71-Ahmad Ammar Haidar

(another source said his name

is Ammar Ahmad Haidar)

72-Khalil al-Jaber. he died due to

his wounds on 26-11-2014

73-Abdullah al-Samra

74-Mahmoud Ibrhim Rabea Kurdi, 13 years old.

He was killed in the massacre of the Industrial

  area

Activists of the VDC are still trying to docu-

ment dozens of other names, especially those

of the bodies that were charred or completely

burned, who are still anonymous .

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B- Thursday 27 Nov 2014

1- A lady named Shaima, who was killed with her infant2-Mrs. Shaima’s infant who was killed with her mother 

3- Judge Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal’s wife

4-Dawood Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal

5- Dawood Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal’s wife

6- Dawood Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal’s son (1)

7- Dawood Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Buhbal’s son (2)

8-Mustafa al-Habib Darweesh

The activist are still trying to verify and document the anonymous bodies.

Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

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Some images

Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

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Source of image (Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)

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