(Previous Incident Code: R4565)

On the morning of Thursday, October 5, 2023, in a town of Jisr Al Shughour located west of Idlib, Syria, artillery bombardement with contested responsibility — reportedly by the Syrian regime forces and/or the Russian military — struck the city’s popular market and residential neighborhoods, killing at least one child and injuring at least 12 civilians.

While most reports indicated a single fatality, a child named Ghaith Abdulkhalek Shaeen, one source claimed a total of three deaths, including a man and two children, as reported by a local journalist via his Twitter account @Zelal_katee, accompanied by a video. These casualties, however, were unnamed by this source and unverified by others. A Twitter/X user @pvSScBsybeozsB8 shared an image of a young smiling boy identified as Ghaith Shaeen who was killed in the strike.

The count of civilian injuries was also disputed, with a minimum of six reported injuries contrasting with a list of 12 named individuals injured, shared by the Jisr al-Shughur Media Center. Although the media center did not confirm that those listed were civilians, all other reports consistently identified the injured as such.

The names of the injured civilians are Fatma Hajjar, Mohammed Thabet Halib,Khitam Hasnawi, Ahmad Al Khalif, Raji Abdulrahim, Abdulrazek Saleh, Nour Al Thaher, Mahmoud Khateeb,  Mohammed Duwairi, Hamoud Dali, Ahmad Al Munir, and Khlail Malandi.

Jisr media center Facebook account and other local sources shared images of the clouds arising after the bombardement and of vehicles being on fire. Orient News tweeted a video showing painful scenes, panic and fear in the city after the strike. Syrian news agency SANA’s Twitter/X account shared the images of the firefighters trying to extinguish the fire that had broke out after the strike. Al Arabiya Syria Facebook account posted the images showing the aftermath of the bombardment –  holes in buldings’ walls, rubble and a burnt car.

While the majority of sources attributed the attack to Syrian regime forces, Twitter/X account @mzmgr941 held the Russian military responsible for the strike.