(Previous Incident Codes: R2468RS2625)

At least 20 and as many as 40 civilians, including women and children, were killed and “dozens” were left wounded following alleged Russian or Assad-waged airstrikes on the border crossing between the towns of al-Qouriya and al-Tayana, multiple local media reported.

Referred to as a “massacre”, several sources reported a death toll between 30 and 40 along with the dozens of wounded, who also counted women and children.

The lowest number of victims was reported by @AJA_Syria and Step News Agency who reported about at least 20 fatalities. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SN4HR) initially reported 16 fatalities, but later added that at least 21 had been killed.

Other sources, such as Al Qouriya United Media Centre, said that the strikes had killed more than 40 civilians.

Baladi News cited a journalist from Deir al-Zour 24 who reported that “the number of martyrs of the massacre of the Qouriya crossing yesterday (October 11th, 2017)  increased to about 40 civilian martyrs and dozens of others were injured,”.

A total of 19 victims were identified by name by several sources, hereof at least one child, two women and five confirmed adult men.

All sources who identified a culprit pointed to Russia, though there was some confused reporting from the Syrian Network for Human Rights. In its initial report, the Network blamed “Syrian-Russian warplanes”, but in a subsequent report appeared to change its position, pointing solely to Russia.