Incident Codes
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Codes: S1077R2211RS2349)
Three people were reportedly wounded following airstrikes in Ma’dan on the eastern border of Raqqa governorate. However it was contested as to who was responsible.
One source, Shaam News Network, claimed that the airstrikes caused a “massacre” and that 12 civilians were killed. However it was at odds with nine other sources which reported the incident without claiming there were civilian casualties, stating that three people were instead injured.
Only one other source, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, also claimed there were civilian casualties, but did not identify the number of people purportedly killed.
It is believed that Shaam News Network claimed the high civilian casualty rate because there were a number of other airstrikes in the surrounding towns – documented by Airwars in other incidents – and it may have confused strikes in other areas with those in Ma’dan. Shaam News Network was also the only source to allege that Russia was responsible, whereas seven sources alleged that the Coalition was responsible. Three sources did not make any claims with regards to responsibility.
Amnesty Intentional later shared an unpublished report with Airwars stating that “Fifteen days ago [c July 11th] “the Russians” started dropping barrel bombs [in the areas near Maadan]. The first barrel bomb attack on Maadan was one week ago [around 19 July]”.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Ma’adan (معدان), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.751769, 39.61639. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.