(Previous Incident Codes: R4044RS4295)

In a major incident, 14 civilians including children and women were reported killed and between 23 and 30 injured in alleged Russian forces or Syrian regime forces airstrikes on the western neighborhood of Ariha city in Idlib, Syria on January 5th, 2020.

Macro Media Center (MMC) reported that airstrikes were launched by a SU-24 warplane with a full load of vacuum missiles.

Local sources said the airstrikes targeted civilian areas in the city attacking six civilian facilities including Khaled Bashir al Halabiyah School- known as al Muhdatheh School, al Hadidi Mosque- known as al Imam Malek Mosque-, Woman Centre of Zayzafon Charity Organization, Baraem al Islam Kindergarten, al Muslim al Saghir Kindergarten and an institute of Muslim Care Organization.

The Syrian Civil Defense (SCD) reported that the airstrikes also targeted IDPs on the outskirts of the International Highway (Aleppo- Lattakia road) causing casualties. Ariha Facebook Page mentioned that two of the victims are students at the Technical Institute for Media at the University of Idlib, and they died while they were on their way to their homes in Jabal Al-Zawiya.

Initial local repots listed five killed and twenty wounded from air strikes carried out by pro-Assad forces. The air strikes specifically targeted homes and a kindergarten that increased the numbers to seven killed then ten. Alarby News reported that thirteen individuals were killed and thirty-two were killed as a school, a mosque, and homes were bombed. This reported followed a report from Horriya News that listed thirteen killed and twenty wounded. The dead were identified as the following: Najeeb Bezmawi (17 years old), Abd al-Mu’in al-Mustafa (75 years old), Mohammed Abdel Moeen Al-Mustafa (41 years old), Fatima Al-Mustafa (3 years), Hamdo Al-Mustafa (55 years old), Mustafa Ahmed Al-Mustafa (41 years old), Lina Mustafa Al Mustafa (18 years old), Mohamed Madi (age unknown), Mustafa Krum (age unknown), Ahmed Adnan Ajjan (30 years old), Adnan Ahmed Ajjan (12 years old), Abdullah Yasser Al-Bayor (Child), Abdul-Jabbar Muhammad Al-Othman (27 years old).

The wounded were identified as the following: Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mustafa, Jawad Eido, Jalal Al-Hamd, Mohammed Alloush, Mahmoud Habbush, Yasser Pure, Gena Turkmani, Abdullah Saado, Maher Habbush, Fatima Habbush, Adeeb Al-Dabal, Sobhi Rahmoun, Fatima Ghonimi, Abdullah Badawi, Khadija Sham, Sham Al Dabal, Mohamed Sobhi Halloum, Majd Al-Hussein, Ranim Saraqibi, Muhammad Rostom, Ahmed Al-Hassan, Maryam Al-Khidr, Burnata Al Azim.

According to list of names documented by local sources, eight of those killed belong to the same family. Victims include at least three children, one woman and three unidentified bodies and those injured include at least eight women.

The death toll is expected to rise as many of those injured remain in critical conditions.

According to Human Rights Watch report in October 2020, “at about 1 p.m., six rockets struck al-Naqib neighborhood in Ariha. One hit next to al-Hadid mosque, another hit the top story of a four-story building that housed the Muslim Care preschool on the ground floor, and two others hit residential buildings next to two schools – Khaled Bashir Halabieh and Omar Bin Abdul Aziz (also known as Muhadatheh) – which teachers had evacuated minutes earlier. The other two rockets struck just off the M4 highway. The strikes killed a total 13 civilians, wounded another 25, and destroyed four residential buildings, including the one that housed the preschool.”

While Justice Organization blamed solely Russia for this incident, most of sources blamed the Syrian regime like @SyriaCoalition, Macro Media Center, Ariha Today, Syrian Network for Human Rights and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. From their side, Syrian Civil Defense, Step News, Shaam News and @SyrianCoaltion blamed Russia and the regime, with @SyrianCoaltion stating that the attack was done by the regime with Russian and Iranian support.