Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An alleged Coalition airstrike in the al Qaim area resulted in the deaths of five civilians including two named children, according to reports.
Yaqein placed the incident on the evening of Saturday 17th. Picture of two unnamed boys emerged the same day, whose deaths were blamed on the Coalition. Two other civilians named as were among those reported killed – and another man was additionally reported killed at Rawa.
Samarra TV located the incident at one of two villages: Local sources confirmed on Saturday, killing a number of civilians, including children, caused by aerial bombardment targeted Akashat and the village of Saada and hand-Obeidi areas in the district-based western Anbar.
Reporting for this event and that above (at Rawa) remains confused.
Given reported British incidents in the area that day, Airwars flagged the incident to the UK’s MoD which said we can confirm that there was no UK involvement in the event.
In their May 2020 civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area at that time.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Akashat or Saada (عكاشات), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.6696398, 39.9680901. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (6) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Picture one of two boys reportedly killed in an alleged Coalition strike at Al Qaim on September 15th-16th 2016 (via news of Iraq)
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Picture one of two boys reportedly killed in an alleged Coalition strike at Al Qaim on September 15th-16th 2016 (via news of Iraq)
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An image reveals the destruction that followed an alleged Coalition strike at Al Qaim on September 15th-16th 2016 (via samarra tv)
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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Sept. 16, 2016, in Akashat, Iraq via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties. 3048/CI288 37SET897259
Original strike reports
For September 16th-17th 2016, the Coalition reported no strikes near al Qaim, though did declare others in Anbar province: “Near Hit, one strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a building… Near Ramadi, one strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and a staging area and destroyed a fighting position and a building.”