Airwars assessment
According to local sources, between three and seven civilians, including one women and her two children, were reported killed, and up to 28 others including four children and four women were reported injured allegedly when Russian or Syrian regime warplanes targeted the Central Prison, in western Idlib in Syria on December 2nd 2019.
The sources mentioned that the prison was targeted with ten airstrikes at least, and that some prisoners escaped from the prison that is believed to hold 2000 prisoners.
According to some sources, the woman and her two children who were killed were visiting other prisoners at the time of the attack.
Human Rights Watch mentioned this incident in their October 2020 report saying “On December 2, 2019, at about 4 p.m., a strike hit the four-story building of the main functioning prison in the Idlib city area, between three and five kilometers to the west of the city, which was then holding at least 2,000 prisoners. About 200 staff were on duty. An Idlib-based lawyer who was visiting the prison at the time of the attack said: I was on the first floor in the prosecutor’s office, representing a client, when there was suddenly smoke everywhere and the smell of gunpowder. I ran out of the building and saw what looked like 30 prisoners escaping. I also saw a dead woman lying on the floor with her two dead children as I ran outside. They had been visiting her husband in prison. There was no information on injuries to prisoners or staff.”
The incident occured at approximately 4:00 pm local time.