Jabal Badro Rocket Attack

At around midnight between Feb. 18 and 19, 2013, a residential area of the eastern Aleppo neighborhood of Jabal Badro suffered a missile attack. Several homes were flattened, and approximately 20-30 initial deaths were reported, including several women and children. The final death toll is sure to be higher once the digging is done, and the number of injured - some of them gravely - will be higher yet. It's reported that a powerful, Scud-style, surface-to-surface missile or rocket, and apparently only one, was responsible. That class of weapon seems to fit with the massive damage seen in next-day opposition videos. Jabal Badro is reportedly a rebel-held district, as well as rebel-free and of no strategic value, according to some rebel assessments.

The attack comes in the context of a recent rush of powerful surface missile attacks around Aleppo; at least two more surface missile strikes, neither seemingly causing any deaths, were reported either the same night or the night before around Aleppo (Al-Bab at "midnight" and Tal-Rifaat in the dark hours, both north of Aleppo). CNN heard, from an unnamed U.S. official, that "Syria has been launching Scuds about twice a day from outside Damascus toward Aleppo. The official could not confirm which Aleppo neighborhoods were hit," but felt the one that hit Jabal Badro was "one of at least eight fired at the ravaged city of Aleppo by government forces since Friday." The districts/towns of Jabal Badro, Al-Bab, and Tal Rifaat, are all about 300 km from Damascus, (300 km is the upper range for Scud B and D, too far for A, well within range for Scud C, according to Wikipedia. All three spots are also about 20 km from a certain spot north of Aleppo (see inset).

A more famous attack was done in broad daylight at Aleppo University a month earlier - a government-held area - killing at least 87 and wounding hundreds. There, LCC, SOHR, and most rebel sources (citing activist "witnesses") described a government fighter jet attack, while Syrian authorities, mainstream Western weapons experts, and in fact the evidence suggest powerful, Scud-style, surface-to-surface missiles, of perhaps the same type now being eagerly identified and reported flying all over, but only around midnight.

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