Up to four civilians, including one child, and up toaround 12 others, including one child and four women were injured as a result of alleged artillery shelling by Syrian Regime and/or Russian forces on the city of Ariha, south of Idlib on the morning of November 4th 2020 according to local sources and news agencies.
Step news agency, Edlib media center and other few sources mentioned that three civilians were killed by the artillery shelling on Ariha that morning. The Director of the Media Office in the Southern Directorate of Civil Defense, Muhammad Hammadi, told Enab Baladi, that “three civilians were killed, including a girl, as a result of targeting civilian homes and main roads in the city of Ariha with 35 heavy artillery shells in the morning.” However the majority of the sources including Syrian Civil Defense, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian Network for Human rights documented the death of four civilians including one child in the attack.
Local sources mentioned the names of four civilians who were killed: the child Rimas Hindawi from the city of Ariha who was going to her school when the attack happened, Samer Madi from the city of Ariha, young Ibrahim Al-Younes born in 1990 in Urum Al Joz who is is a psychological support worker at Ihsan Relief and Development Organization, and young Ragheed Zakariya Al-Jesri from Ariha who worked as a driver in the same organization. Al Souria platform reported that Ibrahim used to drive a motorcycle from his village of Urum Al Joz to the city of Ariha, where he would meet his colleague Ragheed and drive together with a car to their office in the center of Idlib; and according to Syrian Network for Human rights, one of the shells fired that morning fell on a car carrying the two employees in the city’s Al-Midan neighborhood and led to their death. The same source claimed also that one of the shells fell on “the schoolyard of the city’s Martyr Zakariya Saedou school, partially destroying the yard and damaging furniture in the school”, and a number of the shells fell as well on the “city’s industrial zone, partially destroying several shops” and confirmed that the “industrial zone and the school which is located within a residential area are free of any military presence or equipment.”
As for the injured, a post by “Nors For Studies” claimed that five people were injured by the attack, however Syrian civil defense reported that eight people including one child and four women were wounded. Two other sources (the journalist Hadi Alabdallah and the activist Suheil Hammoud claimed that “dozens “ were injured in this attack, and a post by AlSouria News platform mentioned that more than 10 were injured that morning. The city of Ariha that was attacked is one of the most overcrowded areas inhabited by indigenous and displaced people according to Thiqa News agency.
The majority of the sources reporting on the incident blamed the Syrian Regime for the attack including the Syrian civil Defense that claimed that the regime forces bombed the city of Ariha with “more than 35 artillery shells” that morning and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights that mentioned that there was “an intensive rocket attack” and “the regime forces fired over 45 rockets” on the city of Ariha claiming that the attack happened while a “Turkish military column was passing by.” On the other hand, only one post by (Eye on Al-Hasakah) ( post) mentioned that the bombing was by Assad forces and Russia, and another tweet by the researcher Qusaai Jukhadar (@Qussai_jukhadar) blamed Russia for the attack. Worth noting that the Syrian Network for Human Rights mentioned as well that this bombardment was a “breach of the ceasefire agreement reached following consultations between the Turkish and Russian presidents, which came into effect on March 6, 2020.”
The incident occured in the morning.
