In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, between 11 and 23 civilians were reportedly killed in alleged Coalition airstrike 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 summarised that “A coalition airstrike destroyed a one-storey house close to the railway line killing five children and their parents and four neighbours.”

The house was near Sharia al Qitar (close to the railway line – hence then name “Railway Street”) and had a courtyard, according to the field notes.

Iman, Zuhair’s daughter, survived the strike. She said IS fighters were two streets over, on Sharia al Qitar itself. Civilians were prohibited from going there as it was the siege line. She went on to tell Amnesty in a testimony that “As well as my family and the four neighbours, the strike also killed a Kurdish family of 12. They were displaced and I don’t know their names. They were mostly women and children.”

The Kurdish family were allegedly displaced people; their names are unknown but they were all women and children. Iman saw two young children pulled from the rubble.

In their monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition has indicated that the credibility of this civilian harm allegation is in the process of being assessed.