On the morning of Thursday, November 16th, 2023, a missile strike with contested responsibility allegedly perpetrated by Syrian regime forces and/or Russian military and/or Iranian military reportedly occurred along the Afes-Taftanaz road in the eastern countryside of Idlib, Syria, killing a young man Joumaa Abu Zohari who was reportedly operating a heavy engineering vehicle (Baker) at the time he was killed. Multiple local sources referred to “wounded” but did not specify how many.

According to Syrian Civil Defense, two subsequent strikes included one nearby and another that targeted a civilian car close to the initial impact site; however, the latter did not result in any casualties.

Syrian Civil Defense also called “White Helmets” was the first to report the incident at 1:15 PM sharing a video from the place of the attack. The video showed the remnants of the Baker vehicle which had been destroyed by the strike. SCD members wrapped the body of the killed civilian in a blanket and delivered him to a nearby car at the site to take him to the hospital.

“The channel of Aleppo today” Facebook account reported that Juma Abu Zohair was working to raise dirt barriers along the outskirts of the Afes-Taftanaz road east of Idlib, in effort to protect civilians. Abu Zohari’s efforts were “to limit Assad’s forces to monitor the movement of civilians on the road and protect their lives by enabling farmers to reach their agricultural lands and work,” according to Shaam News.

A post by Muhammad Hammoud Badr-Al-Din mentioned that Juma Abu Zohair was a displaced person from Safsaiya and was living at the Atma Camps.

Twitter/X user “Snarling of the Syrian revolution” (@mzmgr941) posted images of the Baker vehicle being on fire after the attack.

Syrian Military Capabilities claimed in their Facebook posts that “Armored hunters in the #Syrian_Arab_Army destroyed a number of terrorist vehicles in the eastern Idlib axis (Taftanaz – Efes) and killed and wounded a number of terrorists as a result” while journalist Ahmad Kareem Tebi posted on Facebook that the Syrian regime military “fire-block the routes of movement of militants…destroying and damaging a number of their vehicles, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of them.” The journalist shared images of the burnt Baker vehicle as well as an image of a young long-haired man with a gun on his back. However, there was no further evidence that the pictured man was indeed Juma Abu Zohair, and none of the equipment destroyed was military in nature. Therefore, Airwars has classified Juma Abu Zohair as a civilian unless further information comes to light.

While Syrian Civil Defense, Al Jayeera Syria, and Shaam news attributed the strike to the Syrian regime forces, Twitter/X user @mzmgr941, Facebook user Muhammad Al-Adlabi, and other social media users held Russian and Iranian military accountable for the strike. Therefore, Airwars has graded both Strike Status and Civilian Harm Status as Contested.

The incident occured in the morning.