In a major civilian casualty incident, which several sources referred to as a “massacre”, up to 28 civilians died and as many as 30 more were wounded in multiple alleged Russian airstrikes on he town of Kafriya and Al Fou’a in Idlib.
According to Baladi, Russia launched “more than 15 successive airstrikes” on the town and “the surrounding farms with high-explosive missiles”. Other sources said that there had been “dozens” of Russia airstrikes on the town.
A report by Orient said that the strikes “targeted residential neighborhoods, markets and mosques in the town.” Multiple sources published images showing widespread destruction to residential areas.
The lowest death count was given by EdlibEMC1 at nine civilians, though the Syrian Network for Human Rights put the figure at 11 including four children and a woman.
Syria liveuamap and the White Helmets (who worked to remove bodies from the rubble), raised the death toll to 15, noting that 27 more people including 13 children and a woman were wounded.
@abuhuzaifa_ put the death toll still higher, at 20 civilians – with 30 more injured, some critically.”
On March 22nd the Step News Agency reported: “Russian aircraft launched dozens of cluster-bomb air strikes on the towns of Kafriya and Al Fou’a in the northern outskirts of Idlib and a number of towns and villages of the southern countryside of Idlib, killing dozens of civilians.
“The Russian raids on the northern countryside of Idlib focused on the center of the town of Kufria, and the western side of the town of Foa, killing 10 civilians and injuring 28 others as an initial toll in the town of Kfriya.
The death toll from Russia’s 14 raids was likely to rise by 28, due to the presence of two families under the rubble of a building in the town of Kafriya, where the civil defense teams are still working to rescue them.”
Smart noted that “forty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed and wounded” in this event. It went on to quote a doctor, “Abu Mohammed”, who said that “more than 15 raids targeted the towns of Kufriya and al-Fuha”. He noted that many civilians had moderate injuries, “mostly children and women”.
Mustafa al-Haj Yousif, director of the civil defense in Idlib, noted a death toll of “15 civilians, including four children and two women”, but told Geiroon that these numbers were likely to rise, adding that the critically inured “were transferred to Bab Al-Hawa border hospital and will be referred to Turkish hospitals”.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
