(Previous Incident Code: S089)

There were contradictory claims as to the status of Bassel Jassem Al Jirroh – reportedly killed in a Coalition or Assad regime strike at Hatla.

While the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies and al-Natiq described him as a young male non-combatant killed at Al Aziziah Street, the pro-government Tishreen claimed that al-Jirroh was a “terrorist.”

Hassakah News Network also said al-Jirroh was a combatant, but was killed in a Syrian regime airstrike: “Three armoured vehicles were also targeted and five cars equipped with machine guns, as well as terrorist groupings in The Youth housing which led to the destruction of the armoured vehicles and the killing of a number of terrorists.”

In its monthly civilian casualty report for October 2019 – published on December 5th of that year – the Coalition assessed the event as ‘non credible’, noting that “July 7, 2015, in Hatla, 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. 2798/CS092 37SFV090116”.

Coalition officials also provided Airwars with a geolocation to within 100 metres of the area reviewed.