Directed munitions strikes on civilian homes in Balshun

In collaboration with Focus Aleppo

Initial Summary:

• Place of incident: Balshun village in Jabal al-Zawiya in the countryside of Idlib Governorate
• Impact site: Two residential houses in the village
• Date: Thursday, 19 August 2021
• Timing: Between 05:30 and 06:15 Damascus time
• Victims:  Five fatalities (Four children and one woman)
• Incident type:  Artillery shelling
• Munitions likely used: It is likely that at least one laser-guided missile of the Krasnopol type was used.
• Potentially responsible party: Syrian government forces east or south direction of the impact site may be responsible for the attack.

Introduction:

Three locations in the village of Balshun in Jabal al-Zawiya were subjected to artillery shelling on Thursday, 19 August 2021, between 05:30 and 06:15 local time. According to news reports, videos, and photos shared by activists and media pages on social media, the shelling resulted in the death of five individuals, including four children and a woman, and injuries to others, as well as the complete destruction of one house and damage to another.

Methodology:

The Syrian Archive conducted an investigation into the incident based on:

• Preservation, analysis, and verification of 75 video clips and images uploaded on social media networks, depicting the location of the impact, the initial moments of the first response, as well as the resulting destruction at the scene, munition remnants, and the bodies of fatalities.
• Analysis of video clips and images, captured by Focus Aleppo, documenting the targeted location as well as estimating the extent of the damage at the scene.
• Determining the geographical location of the impact sites and adding a new layer of verification by analysing the videos at the moment of the attack, the trajectory of the shells, in addition to analysing images of the alleged remnants of the used weaponry.
• Analysing the timing using initial reports, testimonies, and visible shadows in the images, as well as using the sun position calculation tool, SunCalc.

This investigation was the culmination of multiple stages of analysis of open and closed sources. Focus Aleppo provided the team with information related to the date, timing, location, injuries, and damages resulting from the attack. By examining all available information about the attack, the investigation team constructed an understanding of the incident and its potential perpetrators. To learn more about the research methodology at the Syrian Archive, please visit our website.

About the impact site

The village of Balshun is located in the Ahsam subdistrict in the southern Idlib countryside, specifically in the Jabal al-Zawiya region. The village is commonly referred to as Mashoon, according to interviews with residents conducted by the Focus Aleppo website.‬

The screenshot from Google Earth shows the name of the village of Balshun (35.72912959022504, 36.53662103031384) captured by the Syrian Archive on 16 October  2023.

Another screenshot from Google Earth shows the name of the village as Mashoon at the same coordinates (35.72912959022504, 36.53662103031384), also captured by the Syrian Archive on 16 October 2023.

One of the impacted houses is located on the southwest outskirts of Balshun village, while the second impacted house is in the center of the village near the new western mosque. The third house is situated to the northeast of the village, surrounded by other residential buildings. The open-source information currently doesn’t indicate the presence of any military facilities in the vicinity of these three locations.

A screenshot from Google Earth (35.72597709741825, 36.52456055099761) shows the first house impacted by the shelling, captured by the investigative team on 17 October 2023.

Another screenshot from Google Earth (35.728501385473244, 36.534102173612986) shows the second house impacted by the shelling, captured by the investigative team on 17 October 2023.

A third screenshot from Google Earth (35.728122992161026, 36.53960169535904) shows the third house impacted by the shelling, captured by the investigative team on 17 October 2023.

What happened and (when):

On the morning of Thursday, 19 August 2021, news pages and activists reported shelling targeting residential houses in the village of Balshun in Jabal al-Zawiya.

Summary of reports published online:

The Aviation Observatory published alerts at 05:37 local time, on 19 August about laser-guided shells launched from the al-Ghab Plain towards Jabal al-Zawiya. At 06:01 and 06:12, the Observatory reported repeated shellings on the village of Mashoon (Balshun), before reporting at 06:20 of casualties in the area. A  video from the Ahrar media agency was published at 06:50, showing the location of one of the houses impacted in the attack.

A screenshot from the Al-Ahrar Aviation Observatory account showing the first reports of the attack captured by the investigation team on 16 February 2024.

The Jisr al-Shughur Aviation Observatory published notifications warning the village of Mshoun (Balshun) at 05:56, and spoke about the presence of a Russian reconnaissance plane on the Abdita-Mshoun (Balshun) axis at 06:12, and about the recurrence of firings on the Mshoun (Balshun) axis at 06:51 on the same day.

A screenshot from the Jisr al-Shughur Aviation Observatory account showing the first reports of the attack captured by the investigation team on 16 February 2024.

At 06:07, the Battle News Network published on Telegram news about the bombing of residential buildings in the village of Mshoun (Balshun) and its surroundings, and claimed that the attack was carried out with laser-guided Krasnopol missiles originating from Syrian and Russian government forces. According to the report, the attack resulted in the death and injury of residents in the village.

A screenshot from the Battle News Network’s Telegram account showing a report about the attack on the village of Mashun (Balshun) taken by the investigation team on 16 February 2024.

Observatory reports continued, as the Syrian Observatory published reports on Telegram about the presence of reconnaissance planes flying in a circle over Jabal al-Zawiya, and the Observatory mentioned the village of Al-Bara and the city of Kafranbel, which are 4.6 and 12.7 kilometers away from Balshun, at 05:45 and 05:54 and 6:04 minutes from the same day.

A screenshot from the Syrian Observatory’s Telegram account showing a report about the presence of reconnaissance planes flying in a circle over Jabal al-Zawiya, captured by the investigation team on 16 October 2021.

A screenshot from the Syrian Observatory’s Telegram account showing a report about the presence of reconnaissance planes flying in a circle over Jabal al-Zawiya, taken by the investigation team on 16 October 2021.

A screenshot from the Syrian Observatory’s Telegram account showing a report about the presence of reconnaissance planes flying in a circle over Jabal al-Zawiya, taken by the investigation team on 16 October 2021.

Screenshots showing the distance between Balshun, the village of Al-Bara, and the city of Kafranbel, captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 October 2023.

The first video that discussed the bombing and showed the first responders, including civilians and civil defense volunteers, was posted at 06:24, and the description accompanying the video specified the location in the village of Balshun.

Two screenshots from Mayar Al-Ahmad’s Facebook video showing one of the impacted homes in Balshun village from first responders, captured by the investigation team on 25 November 2021.

Idlib TV channel on Telegram published news at 06:47 reporting of laser-guided missiles bombing the village of Mshoun (Balshun) and causing civilian casualties.

A screenshot from the Idlib TV channel on Telegram Captured by Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

At 07:11, Orient Channel on Telegram reported two news reports about deaths in the town of Mashon, identifying them as three children and a woman, and specifying the type of bombing as with Krasnopol laser missiles.

A screenshot of a news item on the Orient channel on Telegram captured by the Syrian Archive on February 16

After about an hour, the Idlib News Network account, Ahmed Rahhal’s account on Twitter, the Syrian Civil Defense page - Southern Directorate, Al Jazeera Media Channel, journalist Jamil Al-Hassan on Facebook, and Thiqa Agency on Telegram published news accompanied by pictures and videos of the incident.

A picture from the page of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate of one of the houses that was impacted, captured by the Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

Locating the impact sites: 

The Syrian Archive identified three impact sites by comparing landmarks in photos and videos available online and in collaboration with the Focus Aleppo team.

A screenshot of Google Earth show the three impact sites in Balshun as annotated by the Syrian Archive team, taken by the Syrian Archive on23 January 2024.

First Site:

A video shows the moment a projectile fell in the village of Balshun, in which the sound of the projectile and an explosion is heard, as well as the light resulting from the explosion and the smoke rising as a result.

A screenshot from a video showing the moment a projectile fell and exploded in the village of Balshun, taken by the Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

Based on a video published in September 2022 of the village of Balshun and a photo of a smoke plume in the area, the investigation team identified the first impact site as in the northeastern side of the center of the village.

Above is a picture of smoke rising after a projectile fell in the village of Balshun. Below is a screenshot from a video of the same place, taken by the Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

The video footage shows an apparent school next to where the projectile fell in the first location, in addition to a blue building and two storey buildings, matching what a video and photo shows of the moment of the bombing.

On the top right is a photo of smoke rising from the fall of a projectile in the village of Balshun, left is a screenshot from a video of the same place, below is a satellite image (35.728122992161026, 36.53960169535904), the annotations added by the Syrian Archive on the photos captured by Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

Specifying timing

Syrian journalist Anas Al-Maarawi posted a video showing the moment one of the shells fell on the village of Balshun. The video appears to have been filmed in the early hours of dawn, before sunrise.

Above is a screenshot from a video showing the first moments of sunrise and the location of the projectile’s fall. Below is a satellite image (35.72715674053844, 36.5375322597656), the annotations added by the Syrian Archive on the photos captured by Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

A panoramic image of the moment one of the projectiles fell as shown in a video from Facebook.

The available footage, which was taken at the moment of the projectile’s fall, shows the sun allowing the analysis of shadows and the position of the sun using the SunCalc tool to estimate the time fo the attack. The position of the sun shown in the videos of the first impact site corresponds to the first moments of sunrise on the day of the attack, which was at 05:55 local time according to SunCalc.

Screenshot of the position of the sun and shadows at the first impact site at 05:55 Damascus time on 19 August 2021 using the SunCalc tool.

Second site:

Focus Aleppo conducted an interview with Muhammad Mustafa Ajaj, the husband and father of the four victims (a mother and her three children) who were killed in a bombing on their home in the village of Balshun (Mshoun). This location will be the second impact site.

Ajaj says that “on August 19, 2021, he left his home at approximately 4:45 am to work on his agricultural land, while his wife, 39 years old, and his children, Mustafa, 16 years old, in the tenth grade, Ahmed, 13 years old, and Murad, 12 years old, remained at home.”

He added, “At approximately 05:35 in the morning, the house was bombed with a missile that caused its complete destruction, and as people gathered at the site to inspect the casualties and rescue the wounded, the place was bombed, meters away from it, with a second shell.”

Mustafa spoke of five shells that fell on the village on the same day, within minutes of each other. He identified the first bombing on his house as two shells a few meters apart from each other. This was followed by a bombing on the eastern part of the village on two houses that he said belonged to Ahmed Arif Ajaj and Ali Arif Ajaj). According to Mustafa, the fifth shell fell near the mosque in the house of Khaled Muhammad Habib. His brother was killed and it damaged to the location.

A photo of Muhammad Mustafa Ajaj, the husband and father of the victims, in front of the demolished house, taken by Focus Aleppo in October 2021.

Two satellite images via Google Earth, taken on 7 January and 13 November 2021, show the complete destruction of the house in the second impact site.

The Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate Facebook page published a video of the second impact site during the first response operations to rescue the injured, showing the recovery of the bodies of the two children, Ahmed and Murad, and their search for Mustafa under the rubble in the house that’s roof was flattened.

Screenshots from the video of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate during the search and recovery operations of the bodies from the second impact site, captured by the Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

The video footage corroborates Ajaj’s account of the incident, depicting the occurrence of a second shell falling near the gathering of civil defense and first responders, their evacuation during the bombing, and Ajaj’s mention of reconnaissance planes in the vicinity.

A screenshot of the moment first responders fled the place when it was struck again, captured by the Syrian Archive on 8 January 2024.

\ A video published by Syria TV shows the location of the second projectile falling near the second impact site. It left a crater on agricultural land about 25 meters away from the middle of the residential house at the second impact site.

Above are screenshots from Syria TV video, the orange circle of the location of the crater from the second projectile, below is a satellite image (35.72604292672993, 36.52426979971383), captured by the Syrian Archive on 9 January 2023.

Screenshot of the distance between the crater from the second shell and the middle of the demolished building at the second impact site via Google Earth (35.72604292672993, 36.52426979971383), captured by the Syrian Archive on 9 January 2023.

What was reported by the Syria TV correspondent is consistent with the testimony of the cousin of the victims’ father that he gave to the Sham News Network, in which he set the time of the attack at approximately 05:00  and that another shell struck the same place during the extraction of victims’ remains and the search for injured people.

The victims’ father’s statement about the timing of the bombing is consistent with what was published by available sources, as the Syrian Civil Defence - Southern Directorate published news at 09:06 about an artillery bombardment with laser-guided missiles that targeted civilian homes in the village of Balshun in the southern countryside of Idlib. The post mentioned the continued work in the search for survivors has taken about three hours.

Specifying timing:

The video shows first responders and Civil Defence volunteers at the second impact site in the village of Balshun. The video footage shows the absence of shadows, indicating that it was filmed before sunrise.

A screenshot from Mayar Al-Ahmad’s Facebook video showing the impacted house in Balshun, captured by the investigation team on 25 November 2021.

The sun appears in the first moments of sunrise at second 0:12 of the Syrian Civil Defense video. According to the SunCalc tool, the position of the sun shown in the video corresponds to the first moments of sunrise at the second impact site on the day of the attack between 06:00 and 06:15 local time.

Above is a screenshot from the video posted by the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate showing the location of the sun during the moment of the first response. Below is a screenshot from Google Earth (35.725959800896526, 36.5245435676905). The identifiers were placed by the Syrian Archive on the two photos it took on 8 January 2024.

Screenshot of the sun’s position at second impact site at 06:15 Damascus time on 19 August 2021 using the SunCalc tool.

Journalist Ahmed Rahal posted a video on Facebook stating the time of the attack was after the dawn prayer. According to the timesprayer website, the time for the dawn call to prayer in Idlib on 19 August was at 04:19 minutes local time, and sunrise at 05:51 .

A screenshot from the timesprayer website showing the time of the dawn call to prayer in Idlib on 19 August 2021 at 04:19 local time, cpatured by the Syrian Archive on 20 February 2024.

Third site:

Focus Aleppo conducted an interview with Khaled Muhammad Habib, the father of one of the victims who was killed in the bombing of their home in the village of Balshun (Mshoun). This location will be the third impact site.

Khaled Habib says, “On August 19, 2021, after I returned from the dawn prayer [according to the timesprayer website, the time for the dawn call to prayer in Idlib on August 19 was at 04:19 minutes local time, and sunrise was at 05:51 minutes] and a prayer was usually held at dawn, about 30 minutes after the call to prayer, I heard the sound of a shell. I went up to one of the roofs and found a shell that had fallen in my house.”

Khaled confirms that his house is located in a civilian area and that there is no military facilities near it, and he identifies the location of the bombing as from the southern side.

A photo of Khaled Muhammad Habib, the owner of the house that was bombed in the third location, taken by Fox Aleppo in October 2021.

A photo comparison of Site 3 in a video taken from a drone and posted on 3 July 2021 and a satellite image from Google Earth from 13 November 13 2021 shows a gap in the roof of the house from the north side.

On the left is a screenshot from a video of the third location from a drone video posted on 3 July 2021. On the right is a satellite image from Google Earth on 13 November 2021.

The image of the hole created by the projectile on 19 August matches the hole visible in satellite imagery in terms of location, shape, and direction.

Above is a picture of the hole caused by the projectile in the third impact site. Below is a satellite image from Google Earth taken by the Syrian Archive on 20 January 2024.

The Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate published a video showing the first seconds of the first response save a child who was killed in the incident.

Above are two screenshots from the Civil Defense video of the third site, below is a photo from Google Earth, captured by the Syrian Archive on 20 January 2024.

Focus Aleppo visited the third impact site and provided us with a photo from the roof of the house showing the building featured in the Civil Defense video and the new Western Mosque.

Above is a photo from Focus Aleppo from the roof of the building at the third impact site, in the middle is satellite imagery of the location, below is a screenshot from the video of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate.

A picture from Fox Aleppo of the hole caused by the shell on the roof of the house at the third impact site shows the direction of the hole from south to north, the destruction it caused in a section of the northern wall of the house and the fragments on the northwestern part.

A picture from the Focus Aleppo website of the hole created by the projectile on the roof of the building at the third impact site and the direction of the destruction caused by the projectile.

Both the Balshun Al-Aan and Mareayat Al-Durar Facebook pages published two videos showing the destruction at the third impact site, and one of the victim’s relatives at the same site specified that the bombing had affected the multiple sites in the village, the last of which was the third impact site, accompanied by the presence of reconnaissance planes in the place.

Specifying timing

Civil Defense video footage shows the sun reflecting on the walls of houses from the northeastern side and the absence of shadows, which corresponds to the first moments of sunrise, which coincide with 05:56 local time according to the sun and shadow calculating tool SunCalc.

Above is a screenshot from the video of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate. Below is a screenshot of the position of the sun at the third impact site at 05:56 Damascus time on 19 August 2021 using the SunCalc tool.

Weapon Used 

Media sources, journalists, and activists, in addition to the Syrian Civil Defense, reported that the attack on the village of Balshun was carried out using Krasnopol laser-guided missiles.

The Civil Defense said in a report on its website that the bombing with laser-guided bombs claimed the lives of five people—three children, their mother, and another child.

A Sy24 video on YouTube showed one of the munition remnants at the second impact site. The Syrian Network for Human Rights also showed in a report a photo of a shell that it said was a Krasnopol type, taken by journalist Ahmed Rahhal (we could not find it on his social media handles) in the village of Balshun on the same date.

A photo from the Syrian Network for Human Rights showing a missile claimed to be a Krasnopol in the village of Balshun on the same date of the incident, captured by the Syrian Archive on 22 January 2024.

Screenshot from Sy24 YouTube video, showing munition remnants at the second impact site  in Balshun village, captured by the Syrian Archive on 22 January 2024.

The investigation team analyzed the published video and photo, and found similarities between some of these remnants and photos of Krasnopol shells.

The cylindrical body of the remnant and the place where the numbers are placed on the its body, as well as an apparent semicircular hole found at the second impact site, are similar to fragments published by Syrians for Truth and Justice claiming to be Krasnopol shells found in the village of Iblin in the southern countryside of Idlib after it was bombed on 10 July 2021 and fragments published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights in its report on the incident in the village of Balyoun on 3 July 2021, which was also analyzed by Syrian Archive in its own investigation into the same incident. It also matches an image from a report by the Inform Napalm website about Russian forces’ use of Krasnopol missiles in their bombing of Ukraine.

On the top right a picture of alleged fragments published by Syrians for Truth and Justice from a Krasnopol shell in the Iblin village incident, 10 July 2021. In the middle is a picture from a report by the Inform Napalm website about Russian forces’ use of Krasnopol shells in their bombing of Ukraine. Top left is a picture of fragments published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights in the Balyoun Village Incident on 3 July 2021. Below is a screenshot from Sy 24’s video on YouTube, showing remnants at the second impact site in Balshun Village, captured by the Syrian Archive on 22 January 2024.

Ammunition No. 2, which shows remnants of a Krasnopol missile, published by the press secretary of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andrey Lysenko, also matches the photo published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights of the munition found in the village of Balshun during the same incident, in terms of the cylindrical shape, marks on the projectile head, and the location of the writing on the projectile.

However, visible differences in images of remnant make it difficult to definitively conclude that a Krasnopol projectile was used in the attack.

Comparison of a  photo of Krasnopol missile remnants from Press Secretary of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Lysenko (top) with a photo of munition remnants from the Syrian Network for Human Rights allegedly used in the Balshun incident, captured by the Syrian Archive on 22 January 2024.

Additional context provides further evidence of the use of a Krasnopol projectile in this incident. The presence of reconnaissance aircraft over the area of impact is consistent with the use of this type of munition - it is one of the two methods used to direct laser-guided Krasnopol projectiles towards their target. The Syrian Observatory reported on Telegram that there were reconnaissance planes flying in a circle over Jabal al-Zawiya. The Observatory mentioned planes circling over the villages of Al-Bara and the city of Kafranbel, which are 4.6 and 12.7 kilometers away from Balshun, at 05:45, 05:54, and 06:04  on the same day of the incident. The Jisr al-Shughur Aviation Observatory also reported the presence of a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Ibdita-Mashun (Balshun) at 06:12 on the same day of the incident.

The combination of technical and contextual evidence suggests that at least one of the projectiles used in the attack on the village of Balshun was a laser-guided projectile.  However, due to the limited visual information in available photographs of munition remnants, as well as the varying shapes of fragments visible in the photographs, the Syrian Archive is unable to conclusively determine the type of Krasnopol (including caliber) or whether all munitions used in the attack were from this type and model.

Potential responsible party: 

Mr. Muhammad Mustafa Ajaj, the owner of the house that was bombed at the second impact site, in an interview with Focus Aleppo, specified the direction of the bombing as coming from the south. In his interview, Muhammad stands on what remains of his destroyed house, pointing to the agricultural land south of the house, and to his right appears the house next to his. In the video, he points to the southern or southwestern side as two possible directions for the bombing, which he said was of the Krasnopol type and came from the Syrian government forces.

Above is a screenshot from Google Earth, below is a screenshot from the Focus Aleppo video of Muhammad Ajaj, the owner of the house at the second impact site, pointing to the direction of the shell that fell on his house, captured by the Syrian Archive in November 2021.

We were unable to accurately determine where exactly the shell landed in Site 2 due to the complete destruction of the house.

An aerial photo from the page of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate of the completely demolished house at the second impact site, captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 January 2024.

Khaled Muhammad Habib, the owner of the house at the third impact site, specified in an interview the direction of the shells in the southern direction and their source from the Syrian government forces. He also specified their type as Krasnopol shells.

A picture of Khaled Muhammad Habib, the owner of the house in Site 3, pointing to the direction of the source of the bombing - Source: Focus Aleppo, captured by the Syrian Archive in November 2021.

Photos and videos showed a hole in the roof of the home at the third impact site, which can be seen from satellite imagery taken after the incident.

Holes in the home at the third impact site likely caused by a falling projectile, source: Focus Aleppo

A satellite image dated 13 November= 2021 of the third impact site shows a hole in the roof of the house. Source: Google Earth

The shape of the iron bars, curved downwards on the right side of the hole, and their curvature upwards on the left side, may indicate that a munition penetrated the roof from the eastern side and exploded on the first floor of the building, given the great destruction and complete collapse of the building’s eastern, western, and southern walls.

An analysis of the possible direction of the projectile’s fall on the house by analyzing the hole in the roof.

According to ARES: The average range of Krasnopol projectiles varies from 17 to 26 km, depending on the caliber and model. Given that Krasnopol projectiles are guided by a laser, they are able to change their trajectory before reaching the target. This occurs approximately 2000-2500 m before reaching the target, and at an angle not exceeding ±15° to the right or left. Based on this information, and analyzing the shape of the hole in the roof at the third impact site, the source of the bombing on this site may have come from the eastern side.

Determine the possible angle of attack on the third impact site based on the shape of the hole in the roof.

Despite this, the pictures attached in this section and in the weapons used section are an estimate analysis based on what can be seen in the information available online. Further analysis requires the assistance of specialists and experts in the field of damage and weapons analysis to determine the type of weapon used and the exact direction of the munitions’ luanch.

In light of the contradictory information, the limited open sources, and the inability to have field access to the impact site, the Syrian Archive was unable to determine who fired the missiles at Balshun on 19 August 2021. However, the presence of government forces in the eastern and southern sides of Balshun on the date of the attack and within the range of the weapons potentially used may indicate that they were potentially responsible for at least one of these strikes.

In orange are areas controlled by the Syrian government, in green are areas controlled by the Syrian opposition. Based on the Jusoor map at the end of 2021, and Google Earth Pro. The black circle is added by the Syrian Archive and shows the feasible range of the Krasnopol weapon.

Impact on Civilians 

Destruction: 

Pictures and videos in the second and third impact sites show destruction due to the. Pictures and videos on social media and photos from Focus Aleppo show destruction at the second impact site, as the house is shown completely destroyed, in addition to damage to the roof and wall of the house at the third impact site including the northern and eastern facades of the house.

Pictures from the page of the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate of destruction at the third impact site, captured by the Syrian Archive on23  January 2024.

Screenshot from Syria TV of destruction at the second impact site, captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 January 2024.

A screenshot from the Durar Al-Shamiya Facebook page of the destruction at the third impact site captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 January 2024.

A screenshot from the Balshun Now Facebook page of the destruction at the third impact site captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 January 2024..

A picture of the house showing part of the wall destroyed as a result of the bombing at the third impact site - source Focus Aleppo, taken in November 2021.

A picture of the house from the eastern side showing the hole in the ceiling resulting from the bombing at the third impact site - Source: Focus Aleppo, taken in November 2021.

A picture of the house from the western side, showing the hole in the ceiling resulting from the bombing at the third impact site - source Focus Aleppo, taken in November 2021.

Pictures of the damage to the house at the third impact site - Source: Focus Aleppo, taken in November 2021.

Casualties:

The victims’ parents confirmed in their interview with Focus Aleppo that five people were killed, including four children and a woman, at the second and third impact sites—a mother and three of her children at the second impact site, and a child at the third impact site.

Muhammad Mustafa Ajaj, the father of the victims at the second imapct site, said in his interview with Focus Aleppo: “The house was completely demolished. My child Murad lost the back of his head, while Ahmed lost half of his lower body. All that remained of Mustafa were pieces of his right hand. As for my wife, she didn’t lose any of her limbs but she lost her life.”

Muhammad Khaled Habib, the father of the child victim at the third impact site, said in his interview with Focus Aleppo, “My children were sleeping in the house. Hamza, 11 years old, was killed, Ahad was injured by shrapnel in the chest, back, and head, and Muhammad was injured by shrapnel in the abdomen, leg, and hand.”

The Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate Facebook page published news stating that three children and their mother, in addition to another child, were killed in the attack. The same page published a video of the father of the victims in Site 2 holding the hand of one of his children who were killed in the attack and talking about the loss of three of his children and their mother. A video published by the Ahsam News page also showed children being rescued from the scene showing traces of blood.

A screenshot from the Syrian Civil Defense - Southern Directorate’s Facebook video, showing the father of the victims holding the hand of one of his children, captured by the Syrian Archive on 23 January 2024.

The information obtained by Focus Aleppo from interviews on social media pages, videos, and photos of news sites, journalists, and activists confirmed the killing of:

-Mustafa  Muhammad  Ajaj 16 years old

-Ahmed Mohammed Ajaj 13 years old.

-Murad Mohammed AJaj 12 years old.

-Mohammad Ajaj’s wife and a the mother of the three children   

-Hamza Habib 11 years old.

A photo claimed to be of one of the victims killed at the third impact site in the village of Balshun, captured by the Syrian Archive on 26 January 2024.

Conclusion 

Three sites in the village of Balshun/Mshoun in Jabal al-Zawiya in the Idlib countryside were hit on 19 August 2021, between 05:30 and 06:15 local  Damascus time, by shells that killed five people, including four children and a woman. The bombings completely destroyed a home as well as extensively damaged another home.

Given the limited information, the Syrian Archive is unable to definitively determine the type of weapon and the responsible party, but by analyzing the remnants found at one of the impact sites, it is likely that it was one of the missiles used was a Krasnopol laser-guided missile, and it may have come from the southern or eastern side of the impact sites, where Syrian government forces were present at the time of the attacks.