The Syrian Civil Defense said that it had documented at least 63 Assad regime and Russian attacks involving the use of the laser-guided Krasnopol artillery system. It said that the attacks targeted public facilities, especially hospitals, humanitarian workers, and civilian homes.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the rescue group said that these attacks amounted to 4% of the total Assad regime and Russian attacks that it documented in northwestern Syria between March 21 and December 31, 2022. It added that they accounted for 20% of the overall civilian casualties in this period.
According to the report, these attacks killed 70 people and injured 102 others. The victims included 29 children and two civil defense volunteers who were killed in two separate attacks.
The report indicated that the attacks targeted 43 civilian homes, 11 agricultural fields and camps for the internally displaced, and medical centers, most notably Al-Atareb Hospital in western rural Aleppo, and Marayan medical center in southern rural Idlib, and a civil defense center in the town of Qastoun in Al-Ghab Plain in rural Hama.
The volunteer group also noted that since the start of its military aggression in Syria in 2015, Russia has used Syria as a testing ground for its most lethal weapons.
The report made it clear that Russia has so far tested more than 320 types of weapons in Syria, noting that the Krasnopol is a Soviet 152/155 mm cannon-launched, fin-stabilized, semi-automatic laser-guided, artillery weapon system. It also said that the Krasnopol system was first used in the 1980s and that its projectiles are fired mainly from Soviet self-propelled howitzers.
The civil defense said it relied on reports by its first responders; the volunteers’ documentation, including photos, videos and ammunition remnants; eyewitnesses; and further desk research.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
