[3] On 6 March 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council published a public report confirming that these airstrikes were perpetrated by the Russian military.

The report concluded that using such heavy weapons on densely populated civilian areas may amount to a war crime.

[2][4] Between 14:07 and 14:11, the Atarib market and police station were targeted by three air strikes resulting in the death of at least 84 people and injuring of 150.

On 6 March 2018, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic published a report on the attack, saying it was carried out by the Russian Air Force and may constitute a war crime.

According to the Commission's report, "early warning observers monitored the take-off of a fixed-wing aircraft, whose pilots communicated in Russian, from Hemeimeem airbase at 1:37 p.m. and tracked the aircraft going south and then to the northeast all the way to Atarib where it arrived at 2:07 p.m".