(Previous Incident Codes: R2026RS2163)

Eight civilians were killed – including children – and as many as 15 were wounded, following an attack on a popular market selling sells vegetables, fruits and nuts in Khan Sheikhoun. Sources were conflicted as to who was to blame, with some blaming the Syrian regime and others blaming Russia.

SHRC reported that the strike happened at approximately 3:00pm, and blamed Syrian military aircraft which allegedly attacked the market with a single airstrike which contained two rockets. 

SHCR reported that some of the injured were severe, and there were even amputations. Additionally, other sources claimed that the death toll was likely to rise due to the severity of the wounded. Many bodies of the dead were unrecognisable due to burns. Two of the victims were also “beheaded”, photographic evidence was published to prove it.

The civil defence teams reportedly recovered the victims bodies and took the injured to the nearest medical point in the region because there was no hospital in the city. 

Testimony of “Anas Bakour” Civil Defence in Idlib:

“At three o’clock this afternoon, I heard the military aircraft of the regime fly over the airspace in the southern countryside Idlib, and then again called it struck the popular market in the centre of the city of Khan Sheikun. We rushed to the place where the market was bombed. After arriving at the site of the raid, we were able to evacuate five injured people. There were also more than five victims, including a child who had died. We took the injured to the medical points in the depth of Idlib and its northern outskirts and the remains of an unidentified child remained.”

Testimony of one of the parents of a victim:

“The vendors were selling vegetables in this market. Suddenly, the warplanes attacked us and shelled two missiles. Four martyrs fell in this place together. I do not know the total number of the massacre. That is what I saw. The sellers here are very simple and have no source of income except this simple market. Most of them sell lettuce. The market has no place for anyone armed at all or even a place to have weapons, all of us and all those who come here are civilians. Since the massacre by the regime with chemical weapons, the bombing here in the city has not subsided for one day.”