Airwars assessment
One civilian, a man, was reported killed as the result of alleged Russian and/or Regime airstrikes and/or artillery shelling on the village of Abdita in the southern Idlib countryside in the afternoon of Sunday, February 23, 2020.
Regarding civilian harm, Bsklaa16, among others, reported that Marei al-Asaad Abu Ahmed, a man from the village of Abdita, died as a result of artillery shelling by regime forces targeting the village.
The television network Al Araby was the only source that reported injuries, stating that “the Syrian regime forces renewed, last night, missile and artillery shelling on most of the villages and towns of the southern countryside of Idlib. The bombing resulted in the killing of a civilian and the wounding of nine others in the village of Abdita.” However, since all other sources reported that those nine injuries were among other villages in Idlib it seems likely a translation error that attributed the injuries to Abdita – the Al Hadath news channel said that on Sunday, February 23 air and artillery shelling on the Idlib countryside killed one civilian and injured nine others. However, when talking specifically about civilian casualties in Abdita, Al Hadath only reported the death of one man, and no wounded.
Aside from civilian casualties, both Al Hadath and the Syrian Civil Defence reported that the attack on Abdita resulted in the destruction of residential neighborhoods.
Sources were conflicted as to who was responsible for the strike, with the Syrian Network for Human Rights and EHSEM506 attributing the to Regime forces, while Al Hadat referred to the Russian Armed Forces as having carried out the strike. Shaam and the Ahrar al-Mayadeen News Network claimed that both Russian and Regime forces were involved in the attack, stating that “[t]he Russian and Assad occupation warplanes launched air raids amid artillery and missile shelling targeting multiple cities, towns and villages, including Abdita which led to the death of one civilian.”
The incident allegedly took place in the afternoon based on written reports and video evidence from @Bashar of smoke rising above Abdita during the attack. The exact local time of the incident is unknown.
The incident occured in the afternoon.
The victims were named as: