Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Local sources claimed that at least five civilians – mostly children and women from two displaced families – were killed and six to 12 wounded after an aerial bombing of their home in the Warrar area of Ramadi.
Al Samaria quoted what it said was an anonymous source in the Daesh-occupied city: “Two missiles from military aircraft landed today on two houses in downtown Ramadi, killing five people, including women and children, and wounding six others, including women and children… The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, and the bodies to the forensic medicine department.”
A number of graphic photos depicted dead and injured children.
In a posting since deleted, Al Fallujah News described the attack as the result of “government shelling,” and also posted video of a 2am attack on the city which it said was by government forces.
In its July 2017 casualty report, the Coalition said it had classed the event as non credible on grounds of available evidence: “Dec. 5, 2015, near Ramadi, Iraq, via Airwars report: After a review of available information it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.”
However given the confirmed proximity of Coalition strikes on the day, Airwars is seeking additional clarification.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (9) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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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.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
The Coalition reported continued heavy strikes at Ramadi for December 4th-5th 2015: “Near Ramadi, seven strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL bunker, two ISIL VBIEDs, 15 ISIL fighting positions, 12 ISIL buildings, three ISIL light machine guns, three ISIL RPGs, an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, an ISIL assembly area, five ISIL staging areas, an ISIL weapons cache, and denied ISIL access to terrain.”