Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
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Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: S1613)
Up to thirteen civilians were allegedly killed when Coalition aircraft struck two or more houses in al Soussa, local sources reported.
In September 2019, the Coalition’s monthly civilian casualty report noted: “In Deir ez-Zor, Syria, via self-report. Coalition aircraft conducted an airstrike against a Daesh explosive factory. Regrettably, two civilians were unintentionally killed as a result of the strike.”
Coalition officials subsequently indicated to Airwars that their own report was possibly a match to this incident. And in May 2020, the Pentagon declared this to be a US-perpetrated civilian harm event.
According to Boukamalna, the house of Haj Ali Al Mohsen Al Faress was targeted on July 16th. This was reiterated by most sources, stating that this led to “his death along with his wife.” Euphrates Post later identified his wife as Mrs. Nabieh and also noted that their daughter or grand-daughter Mona was also killed, in addition to five victims of Iraqi nationality in a neighbouring house.
Later reports noted that the house of Hamid al-Ali, located next to the Mohsen family house, was struck while it was inhabited by an Iraqi refugee family. Baladi News Agency reported that this resulted in “the death of all members of his family of five people, including women and children”.
Al Soussa Youth stated that the strike took place “ten minutes ago”, which corresponds to around 7:20am and Euphrates identified the location of the airstrikes to the Filasteen neighbourhood.
Most sources, including an initial report by Smart News Agency, noted the death of eight civilians, “including at least one woman and several others wounded.” Step News Agency however later reported the highest tally of thirteen civilians killed. According to the news outlet, four airstrikes targeted “the homes of civilians in the town of “Sousse” at seven o’clock this morning”, causing the destruction of three houses.
The report added that the number of victims was likely to rise as people were still trapped under the rubble, “due to the lack of medical staff or civil defense teams in the town, amid a severe shortage of medical and ambulatory materials.”
Al Soussa Youth later reported that Ali Al Muhsin Al-Faris, his wife and the daughter of Muhammad Ali Al-Mohsen had been buried and that “the son of Saleh Al Mohammed Al-Salim and the mother of Walid are in hospital and in a stable condition”.
Victims
Family members (6)
Family members (5)
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Soussa, for which the coordinates are: 34.528889, 40.9675. The alleged Coalition airstrike targeted the “house of Hamid al-Ali, located next to Mohsen family house,” Airwars was unable to verify the exact location of these civilian houses Prior to the Coalition releasing the MGRS for this incident, Airwars had geolocated it to the nearest village at 34.528889, 40.9675