Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A child was reportedly killed by alleged Russian and Coalition warplanes in the residential neighbourhood of Akhtarin, Aleppo. However, there are disputed claims as to whether the raids were carried out by Russia or the Coalition.
LCCSY and Quasion News Agency both blamed the Coalition for the airstrikes – with Quasion noting that Russia was shelling parts of Aleppo in the same vicinity with vacuum missiles around the same time. They also claimed this was an IS controlled area and that there were “reports of deaths and injuries amongst Daash as a result of the international raids”. The Syrian News Press and multiple local sources do however blame Russia.
According to local sources –The village of Turkman Bareh, Akhtreen Facebook Page – dozens of women and children were also injured in the raid on residential homes.
In their January 2020 civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area at that time.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Akhtarin (أخترين), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.511585, 37.336593. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (5) [ collapse]
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included alongside the corresponding press release published by the Pentagon. Airwars is currently analysing the contents of each file, and will update our own assessments accordingly.
Unknown Assessment:
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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December 27, 2015, in Akhtarin, Syria, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties. 2886/CS160 37SCA510420
Original strike reports
For December 26th-27th, the Colaition reported: "Near Manbij, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL weapons cache, and wounded ISIL fighters."
For December 27th-28th: "Near Manbij, eleven strikes struck seven separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), an ISIL building, cratered two ISIL-used roads, and damaged an ISIL fighting position."