Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between six and 17 civilians died and dozens more were injured in an airstrike on Sukariya area, according to local media. While most sources blamed the Coalition, one alleged that the Iraqi air force was responsible.
@ALAMAWI and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights were among sources that reported the death of a family of eight displaced civilians from Aleppo. According to JisrTV, “Coalition aircraft bombed nine civilians from one family, most of them children and women.”
Aksalser put the death toll as high as 17 but didn’t identify the culprit.
However, Smart News Agency pointed towards Iraqi forces, reporting: “The aircraft was believed to belong to the Iraqi air force and bombed a house in Sukariya in the countryside of the city of Al Bukamal (130 km southeast of the city of Deir al Zour), last night, killing nine civilians, displaced from the city of Aleppo, mostly women and children”.
Syria News Desk reported that eight displaced civilians from Aleppo, all from the same family, died in a Coalition strike.
In what is likely to be the same event, Sharqiya reported the deaths of 10 IDPs from Aleppo though at Al Hamdan.
In its July 2017 civilian casualty report, the Coalition deemed this incident non-credible due to a lack of evidence that civilians were killed: “April 15, 2017, near Abu Kamal, Syria, via social media report: After review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
The majority of sources refer to the Sukariya neighbourhood (السكرية), adjacent to Al Hamdan neighbourhood in Al Bukamal (البوكمال) city. The coordinates for the Sukariya neighbourhood (السكرية) are: 34.471667, 40.911111.
Summary
Sources (28) [ 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.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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The report contains insufficient information of the time, location and details to assess its credibility.
Original strike reports
For April 14th-15th, the Coalition reported: “Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike damaged an ISIS fuel facility.”
For April 15th-16th: the Coalition reported: “Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed three ISIS well heads and ISIS engineering equipment.”