Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

R4669

Incident date

April 14, 2024

Location

سرمين, Sarmin, Idlib, Idlib, Syria

Airwars assessment

Shortly before 8:26 PM on Sunday, April 14th, 2024, three civilians were reportedly injured by an alleged Russian and/or Syrian regime and/or Iranian artillery strike that struck residential areas in the city of Sarmin, to the east of Idlib, Syria. The majority of sources reported that the injured civilians were children.

The names of those injured were nine-year-old boy Sa’ed Mohamed Wazzaz, nine-year-old boy Abdo Mahmoud Dibo, and his sister, Sawsan Mahmoud Dibo. Sa’ed Mohamed Wazzaz was reportedly from the city of Sarmin, whilst Abdo Mahmoud Dibo and Sawsan Mahmoud Dibo were from Saraqib. A Facebook post by user “Sarmin We Love You” detailed this alongside the images of two small children sitting on hospital beds. Another Facebook post by user Nabil Al-Othman provided the ages of Sa’ed Mohamed Wazzaz and Abdo Mahmoud Dibo as being nine years old, in addition to the same photographic evidence.

Twitter user @SyriaCivildefe reported that “A boy and a girl, two siblings, were lightly injured”. Other social media sources provided a range of civilians injured which stands between one and three. @SyriaCivilDefe initially reported that one child was injured but later updated the toll to “a boy and a girl”. @Qasemqt also reported on the injury of a nine-year-old child but further added the injury of “two other men” which was not consistently present amongst other sources reporting.

A substantial number of posts across Twitter and Facebook suggested that the source of the artillery shelling originated from Russian forces and Iranian militias, while others attributed the shelling to the Syrian regime forces, with “Idlib portal” specifying that the regime’s militias “stationed at the surrounding checkpoints” were responsible.

The incident occured at approximately 8:26 pm local time.

The victims were named as:

Family members (2)

Abdo Mahmoud Dibo عبده محمود ديبو
9 years old male injured
Sawsan Mahmoud Dibo سوسن محمود ديبو
Child female injured

The victims were named as:

Sa’ed Mohamed Wazzaz سعيد محمد وزاز
9 years old male injured

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Civilians reported injured
    3
  • 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.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Iranian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (12) [ 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: April 14th, 2024

Russian Military Assessment:

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

Iranian Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Iranian Military
  • Iranian 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
    Artillery
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Civilians reported injured
    3
  • 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.
  • Suspected belligerents
    Russian Military, Iranian Military, Syrian Regime

Sources (12) [ collapse]