(Previous Incident Code: R4030)

At least two men and one woman were killed in alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on the village of Deir al Sharqi, Idlib governorate, on December 21st, 2019, according to local sources. An unknown number of civilians was wounded.

The Syrian Civil Defence reported that “a man, an elderly man and a woman” were killed by Russian raids targeting the village. The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that one of the victims was Abdul Hadi al Hamoud, who was reportedly killed along his wife as Russian airstrikes hit their house. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the third victim was also a member of the same family.

A Facebook post from Mahmoud.bakkou added that Abdul Razzaq Muhammad Al-Hamoud was also killed in the attack. A fourth victim was named as Mohammed Al-Hamoud by a post by Nabdderalsharke.

According to @ShabhaPress, the victims were trying to move their belongings in order to flee to a less dangerous area. Step News Agency reported that, in addition to the three killed civilians, “others were wounded”.

According to @media_idlib, it took Civil Defense teams three attempts of searching the targeted location to find the bodies of the victims.

Syria TV reported that the strikes occurred “after midnight”. Wasim Alkhalaf put the times of the strikes at 05:36, 05:42, 05:51.

The majority of sources attributed the strikes to Russian forces. However, Alkhaleej Online blamed the strikes on the regime.