(Previous Incident Code: R4684)

On the evening of Friday, September 20, 2024, an artillery strike with contested responsibility allegedly carried out by the Russian military and/or Iranian military and/or Syrian regime forces injured at least nine civilians, including three women and six children, and killed a nurse/paramedic and a child. The attack occurred in Taftanaz, in the eastern countryside of the Idlib region, Syria.

The Syrian Civil Defense (SCD, also known as “White Helmets”) reported the incident on its Twitter/X account (@SyriaCivilDefe) at 10:08 PM, informing about the death of one civilian and the injury of nine others, including a mother with her five children, a girl and her aunt. In another tweet at 11:23 PM, the SCD reported that the injuries included six children and three women. The SCD also added pictures showing the aftermath of the strike in the darkness  – the destroyed building and the blocks of concrete lying on the ground. At 12:42 AM the next day, the SCD reported that one of the injured children succumbed to his injuries, bringing the total number of injuries to eight.

Initial reports confirmed the death of a young man, Zakaria Al Akhan, a nurse and paramedic. A photo in the media showed him lying on a stretcher with blood on his head and left ear.

The death toll later rose to two, with nine others reportedly injured. The second fatality was Thabet Dalati, a child who is seen in a photo shared by sources wearing a blue sweatshirt. He was initially wounded alongside his siblings and mother but later succumbed to his injuries.

Among the injured were a woman and her five children, as well as a young sibling and their aunt. The Facebook source Journalist Jarir Abu al Fida provided the names of seven injured without specifying their ages and indicating who was a mother of five children: Asmaa Dalati, Sohaib Dalati, Shimaa Dalati, Abdullah Dalati, Fardous Dalati, Hajer Ghazal, and Shahed Ghazal.

A Facebook user, Atarab, posted a photo of an injured child wearing a gray shirt and red shorts, crying and covered in blood and dust while receiving medical attention. Another image showed a child undergoing treatment while he was wearing his gray t-shirt soaked in blood.

User Suhaeb on Facebook cited one of the victims as saying, “Where’s the bombing, auntie?” “The bombing is on our home.” The post included an image of a young boy receiving an IV in his hand and with blood on his head.

A video posted by Facebook user “Neo-Umayyad supporters” showed an injured girl with long black hair, wearing a yellow dress and a hair clip, covered in dust. The video also showed a boy with an injured leg lying on a hospital bed, the destroyed walls of a building, and stains of blood on the ground.

Several images shared on social media, in particular by Twitter/X user @Najdat567, also displayed extensive debris and bloodstains on the ground on the site as well as a damaged truck.

Sources attributed the attack to different belligerents, including the Syrian regime forces, Russian military and Iranian military. Many sources emphasized that the attack was accompanied by the flight of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft. Therefore, Airwars has graded both the Strike Status and the Civilian Harm Status as Contested.