Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Five civilians were allegedly killed and one injured in a unilateral US airstrike on Jakara near the Turkish border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights “documented more human losses, as a result of the US air strikes on a ‘dinner’ in the village of Jakara in the countryside of Salqin near the Syrian border with the Iskenderun Brigade, where the death toll rose to 22, including 5 civilians, and 17 jihadist leaders and elements.”
The source further stated: “Among the dead jihadists, 11 former leaders of Tahrir al-Sham, 5 of whom were of non-Syrian nationalities, and one of the dead was a leader of the ‘Islamic State’ before joining the organization at a later time, all of whom were killed by targeting an American drone for a banquet.
It is noteworthy that the death toll is expected to rise due to the wounded, some of them in serious conditions, in addition to the information about the dead others.”
@asseraaalsham listed four victims that supposedly weren’t members of Hurras Al Din/Al Qaeda and tweeted: “America is lying when it says we have targeted an Al Qaeda meeting.”
Yahoo News reported: “‘US Forces conducted a strike against a group of Al-Qaeda in Syria (AQ-S) senior leaders meeting near Idlib, Syria,’ said Major Beth Riordan, the spokeswoman for United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
‘The removal of these AQ-S leaders will disrupt the terrorist organisation’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening US citizens, our partners and innocent civilians,’ Riordan said in a statement.
She did not specify the number of deaths from the strike.”
Shaam News wrote: “The sources pointed out that among the dead was the prominent security host in the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham, Samer Souad, who is the owner of the targeted farm, in addition to his two brothers, Amer and Ibrahim, as well as the former leader of the organization, Abu Talha al-Hadidi, the former emir of the Badia sector, was killed in the strike.
Among the dead was the leader, ‘Hammoud Sahara’, a former emir of the Aleppo sector, and another security officer in the organization from the city of Aleppo, nicknamed the Jordanian, in addition to a figure called ‘Abu Ahmad Zakur’, and a civilian from the sheikhs of the Al-Aqidat clan from Deir Ezzor called ‘Abu Hassan Shash Al-Saleh Al-Hamad.’
The sources pointed out that there are charred bodies whose identity has not been customarily identified, at a time when information indicates that the meeting was at a dinner prepared by the security authority at the authority, ‘Samer Souad’, in his addition to a farm in the village of Jakara in the countryside of Salqin.”
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.”
The incident occured in the evening.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (7) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Alleged dinner scene before and victim of US drone strike on Jakara on October 22nd, 2020 (via Shaam News)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Jakara (جكارة), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.148757, 36.388092. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. Coordinates released by the Coalition place the event at 36.14875, 36.38808