April 2020: Russian airstrikes leave no civilian fatalities for the first time in 14 months

On Apr 30, 2020

The Russian forces completed their 55th month of military operations in Syria. SOHR activists have not documented the killing of any civilians by Russian aircraft during the sixth month of the 5th year, because of the new ceasefire agreed upon after the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Receb Tayyip Erdogan on March 5. April’s death toll is free of civilian fatalities for the first time since February 2019.

During the 55th month of Russia’s military operations in Syria, no civilian fatalities were documented. However, SOHR activists documented the killing of 28 ISIS members in Russian airstrikes on their positions in the Syrian desert in April.

Between the 30th of September 2015 and the 30th of April 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the death of 20,049 persons distributed as follows:

8,649 civilians: 2,098 children under the age of eighteen, 1,317 females over the age of eighteen, 5,234 men and young people

5,272 ISIS members

6,128 fighters of rebel and Islamic Factions, Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamic Turkestani Party, and fighters of Arab and foreign nationalities.

SOHR sources have reported that Russia used the “Thermite” in their airstrikes, a substance composed of aluminum powder and iron oxide which causes burns because it continues to ignite for about 180 seconds, some the bombs used by Russian jets on the Syrian territory were loaded with this substance.

It has been discovered that they are “RBK-500 ZAB 2.5 SM” cluster incendiary bombs each weighed about 500 kg (about 1100 pounds) and they were dropped by the military aircraft. They carried anti-individuals and anti-vehicles small sized bombs of the type ((AO 2.5 RTM)), loaded with from 50 to 110 small-sized bombs stuffed with “Thermite”, which outpour out of it when they explode, the range of this anti-individuals and anti-vehicles bombs reaches 20 to 30 meters.