Incident Codes
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Codes: I418S492)
Local sources said that an airstrike targeted ISIL members on the Iraq-Syria border, which also resulted in the death of a civilian woman.
Unusually, the incident was attributed to both sides of the border. Geolocation by Airwars volunteer Christiaan Triebert (see map below) has concluded that they are almost certainly the same incident.
On the Iraq side, Al Sanjak village in Al Qa’im province was reported hit. Al Qa’im Al Hadath reported that the shelling had targeted houses belonging to ISIL, that were used as a storage for weapons and suicide belts. It also reported the death of the woman. It did not say who carried out the airstrike. A single other source, a local Sputnik correspondent, reported that “dozens of leaders and elements of Daesh were killed and wounded after the shelling”. It did not report civilian casualties, but blamed the Coalition for the raids.
On the Syrian side, it was also reported that a woman died in an airstrike on the Al Hari border area in the Al Bukamal countryside – though reports were conflicted as to whether Coalition or Iraqi warplanes were to blame. According to the Al Natek Network, “international Coalition raids targeted the village of Al Hari village in the Al Bukamal countryside, leading to the death of one woman and the destruction of a weapons depot in the area.” Alaraby also blamed the Coalition. However, the majority of other sources said that Iraqi forces were responsible. Euphrates Post reported that “Iraqi airplanes destroyed a weapons depot belonging to IS near al Hari border area”. Others reports re-tweeted each other, also attributing the woman’s death to the Iraqi air force. A second report by Euphrates Post said that an Iraqi woman died in the strike.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Sanjak (السنجك), for which the generic coordinates are: 34.4137075, 41.0007191. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.