(Previous Incident Codes: R1411RS1545)

In a major civilian casualty incident, between ten and 18 civilians were killed, including 13 children, and up to 40 more people were injured by air and/or artillery strikes targeting the town of Ma’arbo in the southern countryside of Idlib, according to local media.

Activist Ayman al-Hussein told ARA News that “at least ten civilians from one family were killed in aerial and missile bombardment by Syrian regime forced stationed at the Bridej checkpoint in the northern Hama.”

In addition to the human cost, media activists alleged that the missiles were aimed directly at the houses in the village and destroyed many civilian homes. Following the attack, Syrian Civil Defence were at the scene digging victims from the rubble in order to transport the injured to the closest field hospital in the neighbouring village of Tirmala.

Very graphic images posted by @SyriaCivilDefe and @radwanalbash showed children that had been crushed by the rubble and brutally injured from the airstrike.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, witnesses were unable to determine if the warplanes belonged to the Syrian regime or Russia. However, some local sources were able to attribute blame to either the regime of Russia, with @rola1khatib identifying Syrian regime planes as responsible and @almasar_online blaming Russian planes.