In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, 19 civilians were reportedly killed in alleged Coalition airstrike in Raqqa. Although Amnesty researched this incident on the ground, Airwars have decided to grade it “weak” due to the depth of material provided.

The victims were from the Aarouni family and also included neighbours. Five to 13 members of the Aarouni family were killed in a Coalition airstrike on 8th October. See incident CS1634.

The victims in this strike have not been identified. The Amnesty/Airwars report stated that “Some 14 members of the Al-Aarouni family and five of their neighbours were killed by an air strike which hit the building where they were sheltering. The families were displaced from other parts of the city and their neighbours who hosted them and witnessed the strike did not know their full names.”

The neighbour Yaza, told Amnesty in a testimony that “Our next door neighbours had come to stay with us because their house had been bombed the previous day. 19 were killed in that strike.”