Syrian Human Rights Committee

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Report: Al-Haal Market Massacre in Ma’arat Ma’sareen 30/08/2016

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The city of Ma’arat Ma’sareen lies in the countryside of Idlib’s province, 30km south of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

At exactly 9:40 on Tuesday 30/8/2016, war planes believed to be Russian according to activist reports, launched one air strike with several missiles containing cluster bombs on the Haal market of the city. This market is considered the largest in north Idlib, and is a primary point for the dispensation of vegetables across the area.

At that time, the market was crowded with buyers and sellers. The bombing caused a massacre in which seven of those in the market square were killed, in addition to the great material damage which was caused to vendor carriages.

After the air strike had taken place, and in less than four minutes, the civil defence team had arrived at the site of the massacre. They had been close to the area when the bombing took place.

The team began to transfer the injured to the Mohammed Badh hospital in the city. From there, the cases were dispersed across several hospitals. The civil defence team also carried the dead and handed them over to their families.

Six people were immediately killed when the massacre took place. The areas they were from included:

  • three victims were from Harbanoosh village, Idlib
  • one victim was from Tadmur (Palmyra), Homs.
  • one victim was from the city of Homs
  • one victim was from Qabtan al-Jabal, Aleppo

Twenty-three people were injured. The following are some of their names:

  1. Omar Tahoon
  2. Mohammed Mustafa Ghaliah
  3. Mohammed Nawfal
  4. Turki Shanbashli
  5. Hussein al-Mohammed
  6. Bashar Bakri
  7. Hussein Khidr Mohammed Ali
  8. Mahmoud Junaydi
  9. Imad Junaydi
  10. Abdu Bajar
  11. Mohammed al-Sheikh
  12. Abdul Latif Rihabi
  13. Mohammed Uweid
  14. Omar Khidr
  15. Ammar Khidr
  16. Mohammed Khidr
  17. Khalid al-Mash’al
  18. Ahmed Hussein Ramadan
  19. Hussein al-Mustafa
  20. Mohammed Khair
  21. Fahd Jumuah al-Mahmoud

On the morning of Tuesday 6th September, Ahmed al-Shanab, who had been injured in the massacre, died due to injuries he sustained in the massacre, raising the massacre’s death toll to seven people.