The timing of the strikes – around 8:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 p.m. BST – meant many residents in the neighborhoods were at home or on the streets nearby.

Hassan Jaafar, a 22-year-old security guard, was at his home just 50 meters from Basta’s attack. He told the BBC he heard a “roar that seemed to get closer every second”.

“The shockwave knocked us off our feet, knocking us backwards as dust and debris filled the air,” he said. “For a moment, everything disappeared in a cloud of ash.”

Jaafar said he and his friends were bruised and cut when struck by flying debris and glass. “At that moment, it was as if the war had spread into our lives,” he said.

In the huge pile of rubble left by Friday morning’s strike, distraught residents looked at their destroyed apartments and begged members of the civil defense team to help them recover the surviving belongings.