(Previous Incident Codes: R4043RS4294)

Up to 11 civilians including seven children and two women were reported killed, and up to 25 others including three children and three women – one of whom was pregnant – were injured in an alleged Russian, Iranian forces or Syrian regime shelling with a cluster missile or a rocket carrying cluster bombs on ‘Martyr Abdou al Sheikh Salameh Primary School’ and the surrounding area in Sarmin, Idlib, Syria on January 1st, 2020 according to local sources.

The Smart News Agency said the shelling targeted the school, a nearby kindergarten and a market.

The victims included a teacher and four students, two of whom were IDPs originally from Ma’arat Al Nu’man, as some sources said the school housed IDPs.

Local sources noted that a school and a market were specifically targeted by these air strikes. Al Jazeera released the name of the schools that was struck and damaged as the Salama Abboud School, and Enab Baladi News listed the name as Martyr Abdo Salama school. The names of the victims, both children and adults, were later released and were as follows with children listed first: Hoor Al-Serjawi, Yahya Raed Sarmini, Mohammad Abdel-Fatah Al-Shater, Abdul al-Serjawi, Ali Nazir Muta’b, Child Abdul Qadir Shakol, Abdel Aziz Eid. Adult victims are listed as follows: Abdul Rahman Dibo Aref, Abdul Rahman Dibo Aref’s wife, Muhammad Bassas, Fatima Abdo Ghazal.

Zarman al Waskl News later increased the number of fatalities from six to ten. Civil Defense reported ten dead and twelve wounded, while another local source claimed seven civilians were killed, including three children, two women, and two men. The majority of the dead were from a family of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who escaped Maarat and fled to Sarmin for safety. A later local source then increased the number of the dead to nine children, while Enab Baladi News said eight killed and fifteen wounded. The director of Civil Defense, Mustafa Hajj Youssef, told Enab Balidi that eight civilians had died, and sixteen civilians were wounded. Conflicting reports emerged as Watan FM Radio and Zaituna News both reported that eight civilians had died, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that four children and two women were killed, and Ebaa News reported that five children were killed. Smart News released a later reported detailing eight dead civilians and twenty-five wounded, and UNICEF identified the age of the children to be between six and thirteen.

The Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) in Idlib described the attack as a “massacre”, and posted: “Abdelkader’s mother sent her child to school to learn, despite the inherent dangers because she wanted him to have an education. Today [Jan 1st] regime forces killed Abdelkader, four of his friends, and two of his teachers, after they targeted their school in Sarmin City in Idlib with cluster bombs.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) expected the death toll to rise since ten of the injured including the pregnant woman were left in a critical condition.

@john_marquee geolocated the remains of the Tochka missile used in the strikes.

While some sources said the attack was launched from the Mediterranean, referring to the Russian forces, others said it was launched from Sinjar area in Idlib where the Syrian regime army operates.  However, Nors for Studies said it was likely initiated by the Iranian forces from Aleppo’s southern countryside.