The Maarrat al-Numan market bombing or Maarrat al-Numan market massacre was a war crime through an

aerial bombardment An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offici ...

of a

marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

and the surrounding houses in the

Syrian opposition The Syrian opposition ( ar, المعارضة السورية ', ) is the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated Syrian anti-Assad groups with certain territorial control as an alternative Syrian gover ...

-held town of

Ma'arrat al-Numan Maarat al-Numan ( ar, مَعَرَّةُ النُّعْمَانِ, Maʿarrat an-Nuʿmān), also known as al-Ma'arra, is a city in northwestern Syria, south of Idlib and north of Hama, with a population of about 58,008 before the Civil War (2004 ...

in the

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. It was perpetrated on 22 July 2019, from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. local time, during the Syrian Civil War. The bombing killed 43

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

s, including three girls, and injured another 109 people. At least two four-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

residential buildings and 25 shops were destroyed. A nearby school, located some 700 meters from the market, was damaged. Later analysis confirmed that the bombing was perpetrated by a

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The attack caused even more fatalities when a "

double tap A double tap is a shooting technique where two shots are fired in rapid succession at the same target with the same sight picture (as opposed to the controlled pair, whereby a second sighting is acquired for the second shot). Instruction and pr ...

" strategy was used, in which a second wave of bombing hit the same target when rescue workers were on the site minutes later, killing them. It was part of a wider Syrian military campaign against Idlib in 2019. The

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

recorded the crime in its report published on 2 March 2020. It stated the following:

References

Reports

*{{cite web, title=Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic — Forty-third session, date=2 March 2020, url=https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_43_57_AEV.docx, last=

, access-date=3 March 2020 2019 airstrikes 2019 murders in Syria Airstrikes conducted by Russia August 2019 crimes in Asia Explosions in 2019 Explosions in Syria Idlib Governorate in the Syrian civil war Mass murder in 2019 Massacres of the Syrian civil war in 2019 Military operations of the Syrian civil war in 2019 Military operations of the Syrian civil war involving Russia Russian war crimes in Syria

See also

References

Reports