(Previous Incident Code: R4757)

Shortly before midday on Tuesday, 3 December 2024, an airstrike with an alleged use of vacuum missiles hit residential neighbourhoods in Khan Sheikhoun city, south of Idlib, Syria, reportedly killing two civilian men, identified as Ahmad Aboud Shalat and Hassan al-Rashed. The responsibility of the attack was attributed to the Russian military and/or Syrian regime forces.

News of the incident was shared in the early afternoon; however, no precise information on the time of the attack was given. The Syrian Civil Defense was the first to report the incident and two casualties on its Twitter/X account at 11:51 a.m.

The Facebook account “Khan Shaykhun city deaths” identified one of the victims as Professor Ahmad Aboud Shalat (Abu Muhammad). The picture of the victim shared in the same post shows an elderly man with grey hair and a moustache in a black suit. The other victim was identified by the Facebook account “Khan Sheikhoun event” as Hassan al-Rashed. A picture of the victim shared by the Syrian Network for Human Rights shows the middle-aged man with a white beard wearing a keffiyeh.

The few available images of the attack showed columns of smoke rising in the distance over a residential area. However, it is not possible to further assess the damage to civilian infrastructure.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources except one indicated that the attack was carried out by fixed-wing aircraft, presumably belonging to the Russian military. The source @OSINTWarfare on Twitter/X alleged that Syrian Su-24 Tactical Bombers allegedly carried out airstrikes on a gathering of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants in the town of Khan Shaykhun. However, there was no additional information on possible casualties among the militants.

The Twitter/X user @NEDAAPOST reported that vacuum missiles were used in the strike.