Between four and eleven civilians, including women and children, were killed in alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on a popular market place in Balyoun village, Idlib governorate, on December 7th, 2019, according to local sources. Around fourteen people were injured.
There are many conflicting reports about the number of civilian casualties. The Syrian Civil Defence reported five killed, including four children. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Russian airstrikes on Albesa Market, in the middle of the village, killed at least nine civilians, including two children and a woman.
Tariq Alloush, the director of the Civil Defense Center in the village, told Smart News Agency that “eight people, including three children and a woman, were killed and 14 others, including four children and two women, were wounded by Russian aerial bombardment targeting the popular market in the town of Balyoun”.
Step News Agency reported ten killed civilians, with dozens of injured in a critical state. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that among the nine dead, there were three children and two women.
According to MMC, the airstrikes also targeted a school. SN4HR added that the airstrikes partially destroyed several shops and severely damaged the market’s facilities.
Sources point to both Russian forces and the Syrian regime as the belligerent of the incident.
The incident occured in the evening.