Shortly before 6:22 PM on Saturday, October 7th, 2023, two civilians – a woman and a child – were killed, and five civilians, including at least two children and a woman, were injured in an alleged artillery attack conducted by the Russian military and/or the Syrian regime forces on the residential neighborhoods of the town of Ihsin in the southern countryside of Idlib, Syria. Crime Documentation Office claimed that Syrian regime forces were shelling the town from the surrounding checkpoints.
Multiple sources reported on the event. Twitter/X user @mzmgr941 reported at 6:22 PM that the intense bombardement of Ihsin was still ongoing and resuted in one death and several injuries among civilians. He shared an image of the clouds of smoke arising over the town.
As reported by Rami Al-Saeed, a child named Rawa Naser Al Zain (apparently a girl judging from her name) and a woman named Haifa Radwan Kanj Al-Youssef were killed. Bader Al Din Mohammed Qassam, Rawa Ayoush Al Zain, Bayan Mohammed Ja’yas, Jihan Naser Al Zain, and the sister of Jihan were reportedly among the injured.
The Syrian Civil Defense reported at 6:38 PM that three children and two women, one of whom was the sister of one of the children, were injured as a result of regime forces artillery shelling. Later, at 7:44 PM SCD updated the information, noting that “two of the casualties died, bringing the toll of this bombing on the town to the death of a child and a woman and the injury of three civilians, including two children”. Many Twitter/X users reposted this information.
However, Rami Al-Saeed reported a total of four injured; ᎷᎥᏞᎻᎥᎷ ᎷᏫᎻᎯᎷᎬᎠ ᎷᎥᏞᎻᎥᎷ and Al-Muharrer Media Network – the latter basing itself on Syrian Civil Defense – alleged that the injured amount to five: three children and two women. ᎷᎥᏞᎻᎥᎷ ᎷᏫᎻᎯᎷᎬᎠ ᎷᎥᏞᎻᎥᎷ shared an image of an injured small boy being treated in a hospital.
A picture shared by @SyriaCivilDefe showed a little girl with her face and legs covered in blood while two men put her in a bed inside an ambulance. The volunteers of Syrian Civil Defence brought some of the injured of the alleged attack to the hospital to get treatment. Crime Documentation Office shared a picture of an injured elderly man without specifying any further details.
Sources were conflicting on whether the Russian military or the Syrian regime forces were responsible for the attack. However, the majority of the sources reported the Syrian regime forces as the one behind the alleged attack.
The incident occured at approximately 6:22 pm local time.
