Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Local media sources reported on the death of an unknown number of civilians, after alleged airstrikes on Qeam district in Anbar Province.
The head of the district council, Abdul Karim al-Ani, called on the government to stop the shelling because it targets the homes of unarmed civilians and has led to deaths and injuries. All sources blamed the US-led Coalition or government aviation for the incidents.
At present, Airwars does not have a number of casualties for this incident.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (4) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Al-Qaim (القائم), for which the coordinates are: 34.3957715, 40.9943684. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included alongside the corresponding press release published by the Pentagon. Airwars is currently analysing the contents of each file, and will update our own assessments accordingly.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
For August 18th-19th the Coalition reported “Near Al Qaim, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a VBIED factory.”