Who We Are

Who We Are

Displaced civilians near Mosul, May 2017. (Maranie R. Staab)

Airwars is a collaborative, not-for-profit transparency organisation aimed at tracking, assessing and archiving military actions and related civilian harm claims in conflict zones such as Iraq, Syria and Libya. We also work with militaries, where practicable, to help improve understanding of civilian harm allegations – with the aim of reducing battlefield casualties.

Founded in 2014, we have quickly established ourselves as a leading authority on conflict violence as it affects civilian communities. Our international team has monitored more than 30 belligerents across six conflict countries – and to date has tracked more than 50,000 locally alleged civilian deaths.

Headquartered in the UK, Airwars is affiliated with the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. Our subsidiary organisation Airwars Stichting is registered as a not for profit in the Netherlands, which is also home to our satellite European office in Utrecht. Other Airwars staff and volunteers are variously based in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Team

Chris Woods

Chris Woods is the co-founder and outgoing Director of Airwars. A conflict specialist, he worked for the BBC as a senior producer for almost a decade, working for example in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine. Chris also set up and ran the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s award-winning Drones Project. His book, Sudden Justice, charts the history of armed drone use since the 9/11 atrocities.

Dmytro Chupryna

Based in London, Deputy Director Dmytro Chupryna is responsible in particular for Airwars’ advocacy and fundraising strategies. He has key experience of working as a director for development in international charities. At Airwars he is also responsible for the development and delivery of organisational strategy.

Emily Tripp

Emily Tripp is our Research Manager. She has five years’ experience working in humanitarian aid delivery in the Middle East, with a focus on carrying out research and managing assessment teams in Syria and Libya, to help inform humanitarian responses. At Airwars, she is responsible for managing our diverse research team across multiple conflicts and driving forward our growing research portfolio.

Joe Dyke

Joe is our Senior Investigator. Previously AFP’s chief correspondent for the Palestinian Territories, Joe has a decade of experience living and working in the Middle East. His role is to carry out in-depth investigations into conflict-related civilian harm.

Georgia Edwards

Georgia is our UK-based Advocacy Officer and Conflict Researcher. Previously Georgia worked as an assistant to a UK Member of Parliament; as an intern at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency; and took part in an investigative journalism programme run by the Bristol Cable in partnership with the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Shihab Halep

A refugee from Aleppo who is now based in Turkey, Shihab Halep is our leading Arabic-language Conflict Researcher. He has worked for Airwars since 2016. Shihab monitors and researches Russian and Coalition strikes and reported civilian harm in Syria, as well as reported civilian harm from all actors in Libya.

Laurie Treffers

Laurie Treffers is our Netherlands-based Conflict Researcher and Advocacy Officer. She started as a geolocation volunteer with Airwars. Laurie holds an MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Her graduate research focused on female resistance in the occupied West Bank village of Budrus. Previously, Laurie worked as a freelance journalist and communications adviser.

Anna Zahn

Anna Zahn is a Conflict Research consultant based in the US currently working on casualty assessments across multiple conflicts and belligerents, and began with Airwars as a volunteer in 2018. She has an MA in American foreign policy and international economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and has previously worked in communications and political campaigning.

Clive Vella

As our Geolocation researcher, Clive finds and verifies the locations of strikes across all conflicts monitored by Airwars, and answers spatial questions internally and externally. He started as a volunteer during his MA at the Centre For Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he investigated the infrastructural effects of sniper mitigation during the Siege of Sarajevo. His personal research focuses on the role of emergent technologies in the development of military doctrine that is geared towards engagement in subterranean environments.

Salim Habib

Salim Habib is a Baghdad-based Conflict Researcher and journalist who monitors and follows up for us reports of civilians killed and injured in Iraq by US-led Coalition air and artillery strikes; as well as monitoring reports of civilian harm resulting from Turkish actions in northern Syria, and Kurdistan/ northern Iraq. Salim has worked in Iraq as a researcher and field producer for many major international news organisations, including the BBC, the UK’s Channel 4, Al Jazeera English, Al Arabiya and ABC News