A brutal artillery assault on the village of Taftanaz, located in Syria’s Idlib province, left two civilians dead, including a health worker and a child, and injured eight others, among them a mother and five of her children. The attack, which took place on Friday, originated from military positions controlled by Assad regime forces. Local sources indicated that the assault came from areas under the control of Iranian-backed Hezbollah, marking the latest in a series of strikes by the terrorist group targeting civilians in Syria.
The Syrian Civil Defense (also known as the White Helmets) confirmed that the shelling specifically targeted residential neighborhoods, causing significant devastation to civilian homes. A civilian nurse who was visiting family in Taftanaz lost his life in the attack, while a young child succumbed to his injuries later. Among the eight injured were six children and three women, including a mother and her five children. Rescue teams responded quickly, transporting the injured to a nearby medical center and later transferring a critically injured patient to the city of Binnish for further treatment.
This deadly attack is part of an ongoing pattern of violence against Syrian civilians, a hallmark of the Syrian conflict since 2011. Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a known ally of Assad, has been actively involved in supporting the regime’s military operations against Syrians and the group’s bloody hand-prints are on many massacres. Syrian activists and local sources have repeatedly accused Hezbollah of participating in systematic attacks against civilian populations, including women and children, as part of Assad’s criminal campaigns.
The artillery strikes in Taftanaz are not an isolated incident. In a separate attack on the same day, Assad regime forces targeted a civilian car parked outside its owner’s house in the Al-Dala neighborhood of Darat Izza, in the western Aleppo countryside. The vehicle was completely destroyed by a guided missile, but no casualties were reported.
The Syrian Civil Defense has been documenting the regime’s ongoing assaults. Since the beginning of the year, it has responded to more than 650 attacks launched by Assad regime forces and their allies, alongside Russian forces and militias. These operations have claimed the lives of 54 civilians, including 15 children and six women, and have injured 245 others.
In a statement following the attack, the Civil Defense highlighted that these incidents “constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law.” It emphasized that the “deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is prohibited under international law” and would not persist if the regime and its allies were held accountable for their war crimes.
Despite calls from such organizations, the Assad regime continues its assault on the liberated areas, with the support of groups like Hezbollah and state allies like Iran and Russia. The attack on Taftanaz adds to the growing frustration and desperation among Syrians caught in the crossfire for over a decade.
