An airstrike over a bustling vegetable market in northwestern Syria’s Idlib Governorate left at least nine people dead and over 30 wounded on Sunday, according to local activists and first responders.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition war monitor, and local activists allege that Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, executed the strike on the strategic opposition-held town of Jisr al-Shughur near the Turkish border. The incident occurred a day after a temporary uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin by Moscow’s leading mercenary group.
The White Helmets, a civil defense organization in opposition-held northwestern Syria, anticipate the death toll to rise as many of the wounded are critically injured. “The critically wounded have been dying after reaching the hospital,” Ahmad Yaziji of the White Helmets told the Associated Press. He described it as a targeted attack on the main market where farmers across northern Syria congregate.
Hospital-bound wounded were transported in blood-soaked vegetable trucks, and activists circulated urgent pleas for blood donations. Neither Syria nor Russia has commented on the airstrike. Damascus generally justifies strikes in the northwest province as targeted attacks on armed insurgent groups.