(Previous Incident Code: R3323)

In a major civilian casualty incident, up to 44 civilians, including five to 25 children, were reportedly killed in three consecutive airstrikes on the town of Urma Al Kubra. In total, sources recorded the names of 43 killed civilians.

Multiple sources reported many injured, with estimates ranging between dozens to 70, with one earlier report citing six injured.

The majority of sources attributed the strikes to Russia, yet the Assad regime was named by two sources, while five sources did not positively attribute responsibility.

Estimates of the death toll and numbers wounded rose as events unfolded, with earlier reports citing six injured, with the same source, Step New Agency, later reporting as many as 70 wounded and 40 killed.

Syrian Network for Human Rights estimated at least 10 killed, including five children, and named the Al Aboud family, and Ahmed Aziza, a media reporter, as killed in the airstrikes.

Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported 41 killed, while the majority of sources estimated the death toll at approximately 20, and cited ‘dozens’ as injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported 41 victims, including 25 children and seven women.

According to SCD Aleppo, “A warplane believed to be Russian launched three consecutive raids on the town of Urma al-Kubra in the Greater Aleppo at exactly 6.30pm on Friday August 10th. The strikes targeted the homes of civilians in the town, leaving twenty martyrs including six children and two women and a whole family under the rubble. The number of wounded reached fifty, mostly children and women.”

SCD Aleppo went on to cite the head of the civil defence centre in the town, Hussein Badawi, who reported that there was destruction across  “nearly three neighbourhoods” in the three raids.

Shabab Orem Al Kubra posted the local council list with the names of 35 other civilians who died in the airstrikes. In addition, the source also listed an unnamed family of seven, possibly the Al Aboud family, and two children from Homs, bringing the total death toll up to 44 civilians. The girl Fatima Ibrahim Darwish was reported missing. The source reported that 70 civilians were injured.

Smart News states that “the local council issued a statement condemning the massacre, calling on the international community to stand by its responsibilities towards the Syrian people and their right to live in safety in their country.”

The head of the local council of the town, Mahmoud Al Ibrahim, told Radio Al Kul that the shelling resulted in the destruction of more than 60 houses, and triggered the displacement for more than a hundred families who feared renewed shelling.