Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

R4559

Incident date

September 23, 2023

Location

سرمين, Sarmin, Idlib, Syria

Airwars assessment

On the night of September 23, 2023, in Sarmin, Idlib, an incident with contested responsibility—reportedly either by Syrian regime forces or the Russian military—struck an agricultural area, injuring a civilian man, which was confirmed by multiple sources including the White Helmets organization.

The civilian injured was reportedly a farmer who was picking figs in a residential area, when the projectiles struck. The strike was attributed to have been from the Syrian regime or the Russian military. It is contested whether it was a rocket bombing, missile strike, or artillery shelling by different local news sources on Twitter. The White Helmets of the Syrian Civil Defense were photographed helping the injured civilian, and they reported his injuries as minor superficial injuries and followed up with him. However, @AsharqNewsSYR identified the farmer’s injuries as “serious”.

The incident occured during the night.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike and/or Artillery
  • Infrastructure
    Agriculture
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Impact
    Food
    Impact on services or infrastructure relating to education, health or food supply. See methodology note for details.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: @SyriaCivilDefe

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Binnish888

Russian Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Russian Military
  • Russian Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Syrian Regime Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Syrian Regime
  • Syrian Regime position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike and/or Artillery
  • Infrastructure
    Agriculture
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Contested
    Competing claims of responsibility e.g. multiple belligerents, or casualties also attributed to ground forces.
  • Impact
    Food
    Impact on services or infrastructure relating to education, health or food supply. See methodology note for details.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (5) [ collapse]