(Previous Incident Code: R3229)

Three or four civilians were killed and several others were wounded by airstrikes on the town of Jisr al Shoughour in Idlib Governorate on May 6th 2018. Women and children were reportedly among the casualties.

A Baladi News correspondent added that civil defence teams rushed to the site after the strikes to rescue the injured and retrieve the bodies of the martyrs.

There was some confusion regarding who was responsible for the strikes. Sham Network claimed that the town was hit by a “double aerial bombardment” – first by a regime helicopter that dropped “several explosive barrels on the city […] followed by a direct raid by Russian warplanes on Al-Qalaa district in the center of the city.”

The Edlib Media Center implied over several Facebook posts that the initial helicopter attack was orchestrated by the Syrian regime, and the subsequent airstrikes were conducted by Russian warplanes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that the two attacks were “in conjunction” with one another.

Vacuum missiles, barrel explosives and rockets were alleged to have been used in these attacks. Zeitoun reported that In addition to the human cost, Zeitoun reported that the strikes caused major damage to the city, having damaged “Al-Adawiya, Ja’far ibn Abi Talib Mosque, Askif Mosque and civilian houses”.