Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: S1729)
Between five and 20 civilians were reported killed in an alleged airstrike which was said to have targeted Al Kashma. All sources blamed the Coalition for the incident.
Al Araby reported that “Local sources told Al Araby Al Jadid that the raids left 15 dead civilians, mostly children and women, in addition to dozens of wounded.” More than one other source supported the claim that most of the casualties were women and children.
According to Shaam News, “International coalition planes carried out heavy air raids this morning [25th] targeting a gathering of displaced persons and fugitives from clashes in the towns of Abu Hasan and al-Kashma in the eastern countryside. Activists said that at least 15 people, mostly women and children, were wounded.” Shaam was the only source to report that the targeted area was a camp for displaced people.
Al Sha’afa Facebook page claimed that numbers of casualties was likely to rise as civilians remained trapped under the rubble. They were also the only source to report that some of the casualties were children as young as 10 years old.
In its December 2020 monthly civilian casualty report, the Coalition assessed this event as ‘non credible’, claiming that it had conducted no strikes in the geographical area which corresponded with civilian harm claims.
The Coalition once again assessed this event two years later. On March 10, 2022 in the CJTF-OIR Civilian Casualty Report, the Coalition reported this incident to be “non-credible”, stating that “After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike.”
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Kashma (الكشمه), for which the generic coordinates are: 34.6205556, 40.9386111. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.