(Previous Incident Codes: R3862RS4086)

In what local media described as “a massacre”, as many as 15 civilians including up to five children and two women died and another 34 were wounded, including women and children, in alleged Russian or regime airstrikes on Ma’aret Al Nu’man after sunset on August 28, 2019. According to the Smart News Agency, 47 civilians were killed and wounded in the event.

Euphrates Post put the death toll at 13 including “five brothers”. In one post it blamed Russia, but in another it said that the regime was responsible.

According to the Step News Agency, “the regime’s warplanes committed a massacre against civilians in Ma’aret al-Nu’man city in the southern countryside of Idlib this evening [Aug 28th]. Abdullah Abu Ali, a Step News correspondent said that a SU-24 warplane dropped its cargo of eight vacuum rockets at once in Ma’aret al-Nu’man, killing 10 civilians, including five members of the family – a mother and her children. Another 23 civilians, mostly children, were wounded to varying degrees”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also blamed the regime, putting the death toll at 12 including two women and six children.

A tweet from @Sy24ria reported ” the killing of nine civilians, including women and children” and attributed the strike to Russia. Another post by @khalidaboalmjed put the death roll at 11, “most of them children”.

@OrientNews posted a tweet that reported ” Two civilians were killed and 30 wounded in an airstrike on the city of Maarat al-Numan, Idlib.”

A tweet by @thawrat111 put the number killed at 14 and the number wounded at 30, adding “the number is increasing, and there is a mother and her five children still under the rubble.”

Three of the civilians killed were named by @majed_abdalnoor as Mahmoud, Muhammad and Mustafa (children), “three brothers in addition to eleven other martyrs killed”.

A post by Shaam baladi named the civilians killed as: Yassin Al-Melhem “Al-Maarrah”, Ahmad Al-Hussein “Kafrouma”, Abdullah Yaroub Al-Hamid, Jihad Hasan al-Shalah “child”, Ahmed Youssef Darwish. They also named the civilians injured as: Muhammad Walid Al-Shalah, limays alshuhna ” tafla”, ‘amin alshuhna ” tifl”, Aamir Fadl Al-Gharib, Zakaria Al-Atrash, Muhammad Al-Awad, Ahmad Al-Darwish, Mohamed Doudi, Ghalya Al-Darwish, Aamir Jarban “Child”, Belle Hameemas, Yusef Al-Darwish, Yahya Al-Shalah, Hasna Al Darwish, hamdu alshuhna, may alshahna, Aamir Gharib, Fatima Al-Darwish, Fadia Al-Darwish, eazl alshuhna, muhamad alshuhna, Muhammad al-Shufah, shahid dubaybiun, and Amer Al-Beek.

Syrian Human Rights Committee also adds the names Nadera Darwish (F), The child Nawras Ayman Juban (M), Ahmad Abdul Karim Al-Barq (M) killed in the airstrikes.

A post by My Love Maaret Al Nu’man on Facebook added the name Yunus Ahmed Darwish as kill, bringing the named civilians killed to 15.

Enab baladi reported that women and children were among the 34 injured in the strike and according to Zaman Al Wasl, the majority of those wounded were women and children.

A tweet from @Charles_Lister reported that at the time, many people were still stuck under the rubble.

Videos posted by Hadi Al Abdullah show destroyed buildings, fires, and White Helmets removing bodies and helping injured people and trying to remove people from collapsed buildings. At least one body of a child can be seen being removed from the rubble. The same source also mentioned that the bombing, which they attributed to the regime, occurred in residential neighborhoods and caused great damage and fire to residential homes. They identified 12 civilians, including six children and two women, as being killed.

A graphic video posted by @asseraaalsham shows a teenage boy who was violently killed while riding a motorcycle.

A graphic image posted by @khalidaboalmjed shows five small children that were killed in the strikes, which they attributed to Russia.

Multiple sources, including Step News and @Sy24ria, reported that Ma’aret Al Nu’man was struck with eight vacuum missiles. Enab Baladi reported: “The director of the “Civil Defense” sector in Maarat al-Numan, Abada Zikra, told Enab Baladi that the “Sukhoi 24” Syrian warplanes targeted residential neighborhoods in the city with 12 missiles at once.”