(Previous Incident Codes: R2774RS2970)

In this incident, described as a “massacre”, alleged Russian cluster bombs killed between seven and ten civilians, including up to five children and one woman, and up to dozens of others, as the village of Khan al-Subul, Idlib, was struck by airstrikes on February 3, 2018, local media reported.

Step News Agency reported how “the first massacre took place in the town of Khan al-Subul, killing more than 10 civilians, most of them women and children, in addition to tens of wounded (as a preliminary result), after targeting more than 4 cluster rockets.”

Other sources, such as the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SN4HR) said that the strike caused “at least seven civilians, including five children and a woman”. The Syrian Civil Defense, who put the death toll at nine, said that among these were three children.

The number of wounded spanned from “several” to “dozens”, the latter reported by Hadi Abdullah, who added that most of the wounded were children and women.

The majority of the known sources reported the cluster bombs were fired from four ballistic missiles. Orient news, for example, reported how “Russia committed a massacre of civilians in the town of Khan al-Sabil in rural Idlib during the targeting of the town with four long-range ballistic missiles.”

SN4HR published a photo of one of the long-range missiles that reportedly had been used.

All known sources pointed unanimously to Russia as the culprit.