[1] However, alternative sources close to Turkey, suggested a significantly higher death toll, ranging from 50 to 70 casualties, marking it as the most lethal attack on Turkish forces since their engagement in the Syrian Civil War commenced.

At around 11 a.m. on 27 February 2020, a pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-34s accompanied by two Syrian Su-22 fighter bombers initiated a series intensive of bombing raids on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces in the southern countryside of Syria's Idlib province.

[4] At around 5 p.m., a convoy consisting of a 400-man Turkish mechanized infantry battalion came under attack by an airstrike while traveling on the road between al-Bara and Balyun, about five kilometers north of Kafr Nabl.

Subsequently, a second bombing forced 80 Turkish soldiers from the 65th Mechanised Infantry Brigade to seek shelter in nearby buildings.

The Ukrainian embassy in Ankara reacted to these airstrikes, describing them as "revenge" against Russia for the 2020 Baylun incident and declaring that "there is such a thing as divine justice".