(Previous Incident Code: R4335)

At least one child was killed and five other civilians, including a pregnant woman, another woman, and two children, were injured, in addition to the killing of the pregnant woman’s fetus, from alleged Russian or regime strikes on the town of Balshon on the morning of July 3, 2021.

According to Syrian Civil Defense, “a child and a fetus were killed after his pregnant mother was injured in the village of Balshon” and the sibling of the fetus that was killed was named Hassan [Hael Ajaj]. In addition, “4 civilians (a man, a woman and two children), all from the same family, were wounded in artillery shelling by the regime forces and Russia that targeted their house this morning.”

Syrian Network for Human Rights identified the name of the pregnant woman who was injured as Nouriyah Hatem Harmoush.

@zelal_abo_adnan tweeted about “the death of the child, Rital Hael Ajaj, after being injured this morning in the town of Balshon in Jabal Al-Zawiya. Note that her brother was also killed hours ago.” This indicates that the named child was actually the fetus that was killed in the pregnant woman’s womb – @anasanas84 specifically reports that “Assad and Russia’s missiles killed her before her mother gave birth to her. A girl was killed in her mother’s womb”. However, @Gurbtwatan tweeted that “this baby was in her mother’s womb and died two hours after her birth”.

Sources were conflicted as to who was responsible for the strikes, with @IbnAlarabi15 referring to “#Putin’s laser-guided missiles” as killing the civilians in Balshon while @HalabTodayTV blamed the regime.