At Least 9 Killed and Injured in Explosion in Idlib City, Syria

SadaNews - At least 9 people were killed or injured in an initial toll due to "explosions" of unknown causes on the outskirts of Idlib city in northwest Syria, according to state media on Thursday.

 

The state television reported "explosions... the nature of which is being verified," stating that there were "two martyrs and four injured" in an "initial toll," while the Syrian Ministry of Health confirmed shortly after that there were "4 dead and 5 injured in an initial toll due to an explosion in the vicinity of Idlib city."

Residents in Idlib reported hearing the sound of explosions at the western outskirts of the city.

For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted the sound of "intense, successive explosions inside a site for foreign fighters, non-Syrian, that contains an ammunition depot, coinciding with the flight of drones in the air."

The explosions resulted in a "thick column of smoke rising, amidst a state of panic among residents and passersby in the area," according to the Observatory.

The area witnesses explosions in military factions' headquarters from time to time, without the authorities announcing their causes.

According to the incoming information, calls have been made from within hospitals in Idlib due to an urgent need for blood types, while operations to retrieve bodies from under the rubble continue, amidst a widespread presence of ambulance and security teams in the area.

On July 24, at least 12 people were killed and about 120 others injured due to a series of explosions inside a weapons depot belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party in the town of Maarrat Misrin in northern Idlib countryside, according to the Observatory's toll.