Between one and nine civilians were killed and up to 14 were wounded in alleged Russian or regime airstrikes on the village of Ihsem on June 21, 2021. Sources contest whether some of the people identified, specifically the prisoners being held in a prison in Ihsem that was bombed, were belligerents.
The initial number given of casualties from the bombing on Ihsem, according to @jisrtv, was ” 4 dead and 14 wounded”. @HalabTodayTV tweeted that “the number of victims of the regime’s bombing of the town of Ihsem in the southern countryside of Idlib has risen to five” while @Sy24ria identified seven civilians as being killed.
Anadolu Agency reported that 10 civilians were injured in Al Bara and Ihsem but does not distinguish how many were injured in each town.
@EdlibNN reported on the “martyrdom of Ahmed Mustafa Nasouh (Ahmed Al-Satayef), from the town of Al-Bara, as a result of the bombing of the Ahsam police station today”. @Nabel_othman023 added that at the time, he was being detained at the police station.
A tweet from @dbOFRYEU7XqMrTc identified Abu Tahrir Asad as being killed in the strikes on Ihsem and indicated that he was a member of the military. @SyriawatanNews also reported on “the killing of the military commander named “Mohammed Qazi” and a number of terrorists from the so-called “First Infantry Division” affiliated with the “National Liberation Front” terrorists”.
Resala post gives the name of four people killed in Ihsem: Muhammad Abd al-Ilah al-Qadi, from the town of Kafr Sijna (identified above as a belligerent); Ahmed Mustafa Al-Nasouh from Al-Bara; Walid Al-Asaad from the town of Abdita; Iyad Tahrir Al-Ahmad from the town of Karnaz.
@masri_yaser reported that the bombing struck the “homes of the security force” and identified that it “led to the death of nine people who were inside the house” but does not distinguish if those killed were members of the security force or not. This could indicate that two different locations may have been targeted, as at least four of the civilians killed are identified as being killed in the police station.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that “elements of the National Front were there against the background of a dispute” in reference to the police station while Horrya News identified those killed at the police station as “a civilian, a policeman and three prisoners”.
Syrian Network for Human Rights named the policeman killed as Walid Al-Asaad (listed above) and “the deaths of two fighters who were detained in the station”. However, Zaman Al Wasl reported that “the three civilians who died as a result of the bombing were prisoners displaced from different areas in the south and west of Idlib governorate, in addition to the killing of two police station members, and the injury of 5 others, including two prisoners.”
Watan FM News further broke down the numbers to “5 deaths, including two civilians and 3 members of the Syrian National Army.”
Sources were conflicted as to who was responsible for the strikes. A tweet from @syriapostnew1 identified both Russia and the regime as to blame for the bombing while @resalapost attributed the strikes to Russia and Enab Baladi News blamed the regime.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
