Airwars assessment
Shortly before 8:04 AM in the morning and once again in the afternoon of Sunday, October 8th, 2023, the center (in particular, an area around Al-Khamara Street) and outskirts of the city of Idlib, Syria, were hit by heavy artillery bombardment attributed to Syrian regime forces and/or Russian military. The strikes resulted in at least five civilian deaths, including two women, two children, and a young man, and injury of up to 31 civilians, including two Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) volunteers. The bombardment reportedly hit residential areas in the center of Idlib, a camp for displaced persons in the outskirts, a university hospital, and vital infrastructure.
The Syrian Civil Defense forces initially reported the deaths of two children and a woman. At 9:21 AM Twitter/X user @Syrine_Za15 wrote that two women and two children were killed. At 11:24 AM SCD provided more detailed information, emphasizing that a woman died of a heart attack during the bombardment, and reporting that two people trapped (a man and a woman) were rescued from the rubble by SCD teams and that several injured people were treated. White Helmets shared images of one of their volunteers treating a victim, while another one was inspecting the damaged building. At 5:21 PM SCD reported that a young man who was rescued from under the rubble by its volunteers died as a result of his wounds sustained this morning.
The names of the four victims were reported by other sources. Twitter/X users @Syrine_Za15 and @Rian_almasri tweeted the names, and the Al-Zeer Company made a Facebook post that confirmed the names and ages of the victims.
The civilians killed in the strike were identified as Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an 11-year-old boy; Amina Sulayman, a 68-year-old woman; Bushra Al Salmo, 27-year-old woman; and a boy Yousef Mohsen aged 17. The name of the fifth victim, a young man, was not reported.
The attacks injured at least 28 other civilians, including 10 children and six women. Some of them were critically injured, underscoring the profound human cost of the conflict in this heavily contested region. Notably, two Syrian Civil Defense volunteers were among the wounded.
The number of the injured was later updated to 31, apparently after the afternoon attack that the SCD reported in the afternoon around 1:14 PM. SCD tweeted that “a civilian was killed and two women were injured in the initial toll of renewed missile bombardment by regime forces on the city of #Idlib this afternoon.” It added that a cluster of medical facilities in the city were hit and a fire broke out in a civilian’s car. The attached images showed a car trapped in a fire and several SCD volunteers extinguishing it. In another tweet, SCD posted a video showing the fight against fire and also the transportation of an injured man to the ambulance.
SCD also tweeted a video showing the aftermath of the strike at the University camp where two young men were reportedly injured and at least five sheep were killed. Omar Madaniah shared a video where it can be seen how camps for displaced people were bombed.
Facebook user Abu Zaid Al-Hamawi posted a video where civilians were pulled from under the rubble reportedly at Al-Khamara Street, and an injured man can be seen lying on a stretcher.
Fadi Sayadi Al Hashemi shared a video of the first minutes after the strike on the hospital in the city. A journalist Zelal Katee posted a video on Twitter showing a doctor of one of the Idlib hospitals who was saying that he was subject to bombardment while he was in the operation room.
Reports alleged that the bombings in Idlib were carried out by Assad’s militia, Russian military forces, or both. The contested responsibility for the strike is attributed to several parties: the Syrian regime, as reported by the Syrian Civil Defence and many other Twitter accounts such as @Abu Zaid Al-Hamawi; the Russian military, as reported by Twitter accounts @mzmgr941, @Syrine_Za15, and @HsabMghrd; and finally, blame was attributed to both the Syrian regime and the Russian military, with many tweets reporting this shared responsibility, including @HsabMghrd, @Syrine_Za15, @Rian_almasri, and @mhmd17871_bd.
The Syrian Civil Defense reported the strike hit the center and outskirts of Idlib, while in the outskirts it attacked a camp for displaced people, civilian homes in residential neighborhoods, a market, and an educational facility (Directorate of Education).
A Facebook account of the Lens of Idlib University Hospital students reported the targeting of the Ibn Sina University Hospital, noting “fear and panic” resulting from the attack and shared a picture of the broken glass windows.
The incident occured between 8:04 am and 1:14 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Summary
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Source: Warda Tasnim -
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Source: Bassel Houssah -
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Source: @Rian_almasri -
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Source: @Syrine_Za15 -
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Source: @HsabMghrd -
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