Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

CS1562a

Incident date

October 1, 2017

Location

Raqqa, Syria

Geolocation

35.956692, 39.010715 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Exact location (via Airwars) level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, one civilian was reportedly killed in alleged Coalition artillery strikes in Raqqa. Although Airwars assesses single sourced incidents as “weak”, researchers have assessed this incident “fair” due to the depth of material provided by Amnesty.

The report stated that “Mahmud A’Qader Aama, 22, was killed by an airstrike while fetching water from a well, together with some 35 other civilians who were also fetching water. The air strike targeted the gathering of people fetching water.”

There are no details however of the 35 other victims.

A witness of the strike, Walid, told Amnesty in a testimony that, “It was very dangerous to fetch water. The Coalition planes often bombed the people gathered at the wells. Didn’t they know that we had no other way of getting water? There was no running water in the city; only wells.”

Google Earth shows on 2017/07/07-2017/07/19 damage to a nearby building. However on the 2017/08/19-2017/08/25 more damage can be seen as on the 2017/09/06-2017/09/19.

In July 2019 the Coalition announced that it had assessed this allegation of civilian harm to be non-credible. Their monthly civilian casualty report noted: “After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties.”

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Mahmud A’Qader Aama
22 years old male killed

Geolocation notes (2) [ collapse]

  • Before strike. (via Amnesty)

  • After strike. (via Amnesty)

Summary

  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1 – 35
  • (1 man)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition

US-led Coalition Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition
  • US-led Coalition position on incident
    Non credible / Unsubstantiated
    Insufficient information to assess that, more likely than not, a Coalition strike resulted in civilian casualties.
  • Reason for non-credible assessment
    No Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area
  • Stated location
    in Raqqa, Syria
    Nearest population center
  • Location accuracy
    100 m
  • MGRS coordinate
    37SEV010791
    Military Grid Reference System

Civilian casualty statements

US-led Coalition
  • Jul 26, 2019
  • Oct. 1, 2017, in Raqqa, Syria, via Amnesty International report. After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties.

Original strike reports

US-led Coalition

Near Raqqah, Syria, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two
fighting positions.

Summary

  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1 – 35
  • (1 man)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition