(Previous Incident Code: R4333)

At least five civilians, including a woman and three to four children, were killed and three to four other civilians, including a woman and two children, were injured in alleged Russian or regime strikes on Iblin the morning of July 3, 2021.

The Syrian Civil Defense reported that “the regime forces and Russia committed a massacre in the village of Iblin, killing 5 civilians (a man, his wife and three of their children) and wounding a woman and two children, all of them from the same family”. Various other sources also reported that five civilians were killed, with Enab Baladi identifying “that a man and his four children were killed”.

Step News Agency indicated that four civilians were “seriously” wounded in the strikes and identified laser-guided missiles as being used.

The names of those killed were provided by @AbuWael_Daraya: Sobhi Abdel Hamid Al-Asi (M husband), Souad Sobhi Al-Asi (W the wife), Ibrahim Sobhi Al-Asi (M child), Saad Sobhi Al-Asi (M child), Banan Sobhi Al-Asi (M child).

Etlif News reported that the same family lost “11 of its relatives as a result of similar bombing” a few days ago, “which indicates that the area was deliberately targeted”. Violet Syria also added that “five members of his family were martyred as a result of the regime’s bombing of a family’s mourning gathering in their village of Iblin on the tenth of June 2021”.

According to @thawrat111, “Sobhi Al-Assi is a volunteer in the medical team “Violet Organization” and a tweet from @org_violet commemorates his life. @SCDKutini gave specific information on his role, “[working] at the community treatment center to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Jericho and at the Abilene Primary Health Care Center.” Violet Syria also posted on their website that “he is a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Sharia and Law at Idlib University, and he participated yesterday, Friday, in the human chain on Bab Al-Hawa Road within Advocacy, calling for his stance to save the lives of civilians in northwest Syria and not to cut off their lifeline.”

A tweet from @ibrahim78197182 added that the family was asleep when the strikes occurred and were killed in their sleep while @org_violet reported that Sobhi was killed “while he was on his way to work”.

@HalabTodayTV identified that “residential areas” within the town were shelled by artillery.  A video posted by @Jamil_Alhasaan shows the extensive damage to the house caused by the strikes and the backyard of the house that the children that were killed used to play in. The director of the Unified Observatory, Ammar Abu al-Hassan, told Enab Baladi News that none of these areas bombarded had a military presence.

The majority of sources attributed the strikes to Russia and Syrian Network for Human Rights provided an image of the shells that they identified as Russian that struck the home and injured members of the family. However, @HalabTodayTV blamed the regime for the strikes and referred to them as “artillery” strikes.

UNICEF condemned the attacks, including this one, that resulted in children being killed and called “for the protection of all children and strongly urge those fighting to refrain from further attacks”.