(Previous Incident Codes: R4032RS4281)

Between four and seven civilians were killed as the result of an alleged Russian or Syrian regime airstrike on a convoy with displaced people on the international road to Ma’arat Al Numan on December 22nd, 2019, according to local sources. On December 28th, a local source reported that one of the victims died of his injuries sustained in the attack.

Step News Agency put the preliminary death toll at three killed civilians and an unknown number of wounded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that seven civilians were killed.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights reported the death of the brothers Muhammad and Ahmad Subhi Sharaf al Din, displaced from Taqana village, and their father. Ahmad Okab identified the name of their father: Sobhi Sharaf El-Din.

Eyewitnesses told Smart News Agency that “Russian warplanes targeted the cars of the displaced and an agricultural tractor carrying a displaced family and the furniture of its house in the city of Ma’arat Al Numan (32 km south of Idlib), killing two civilians and wounding another, as a result of which he was transferred to a nearby hospital.”

@abuhuzaifa_ posted a video on Twitter reportedly showing the remains of children burned in the incident.

The Step News Agency correspondent stated that “the Syrian and Russian aviation are trying to cut off the road for civilians trying to get out of the city of Ma’arat Al Numan, by targeting the cars of the displaced people on the international road at the northern entrance to the city”. Shaam News Network added that the bombing happened despite activists’ “escalating calls to stop the shelling and allow civilians to leave”.

On December 28th, 2019, the Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that Mustafa Absi al Khalaf died because of wounds he sustained as a result of this incident.

@john_marquee provided the geolocation for the incident.

While nearly all sources pointed to Russian forces, Step News Agency reported that the aircraft that carried out the strikes belonged to the Syrian regime. @HadiAlabdallah pointed out that vacuum missiles were used in the attack.