Airwars assessment
On the first night of US airstrikes in Syria, the United States carried out a sequence of attacks on the Al Qaeda-affiliated Khorasan Group (part of the al-Nusra Front.) For the only recorded occasion during the allied air war, the US deployed Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike targets in the vicinity of Aleppo. Locals also reported what they described as US combat aircraft participating. Up to fifteen civilians died in the strikes, along with “a large number of mujahideen” according to one Al Qaeda-linked militant at the scene.
Eyewitnesses told SN4HR that all of the civilian deaths occurred when a house collapsed: “The huge pressure from the explosion caused the collapse of a two-storied residential house near the Nusra Front target, less than 100 m from it. This caused the death of 12 people, all civilians, including five children and five women.” SN4HR later added a 13th fatality to its lists.
The civilian victims were later named by various sources.
After examining video evidence of apparent US cruise missile fragments at the village, Human Rights Watch later said that the strikes “should be investigated for possible violations of the laws of war.”
Buzzfeed also spoke with two eyewitnesses to the attack, with one noting: “What we saw with our own eyes was unreal — the [civilian] houses were completely gone. Our job was to collect the body parts. The worst thing was the children. It’s still in my mind.”
An internal CENTCOM investigation into alleged civilian deaths swiftly concluded “No further inquiry required,” it was revealed a year later. This was in part based on an assessment that “Open source images presented as casualties from the strikes actually came from previous GoS [Government of Syria] strikes.”
Airwars has since examined all known published images relating to the Kafr Daryan event. As our Syria researcher Kinda Haddad notes, “Every picture but one we are aware of first appears on 23rd September 2014, and in connection with Kafr Daryan.”
The one known exception is a picture which first appeared as a tweet on September 2nd, after a child was killed by the Assad regime. Shortly after the Kafr Daryan attack some three weeks later, that same image was claimed in English by at least one site to have been taken at Kafr Daryan.
However even a rudimentary search by CENTCOM would have identified multiple photographs and videos relating to September 23rd itself. Even when investigators noted new evidence on the strike from the Syrian Network for Human Rights in April 2015, this did not appear to trigger any new inquiry.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (4)
- Abd Al-Hameed Mohammad Jahjah Adult male Named by Syria Martyrs, father killed
- Reem Al-Hajji Adult female Named by Syria Martyrs, mother killed
- Basmala Child female Named by Syria Martyrs, daughter killed
- Mohammad abd al Hameed Jahjah Age unknown male Named by Syria Martyrs, son killed
Family members (3)
- Ramziya Juma’a Mahmoud Mu’az Adult male Named by Syria Martyrs, father killed
- Mrs Ramzia Adult female Named by Syria Martyrs, mother killed
- Mahmoud Juma’a Moua’z Child male Named by Syria Martyrs, infant son killed
Family members (2)
- Mohammed Darwish Adult male Named by Global Post, husband killed
- Fatima Darwish Adult female Named by Global Post, wife killed
- Zainab Mhanna Barakat Adult female Named by Syria Martyrs killed
- Safa’a Mhanna Barakat Adult female Named by Syria Martyrs killed
- Safwan Yihya Age unknown male killed
- Abu Yousef Al Kannass Adult male Named by Syria Martyrs, Turkish killed
Summary
Sources (24) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (13) [ collapse]
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GRAPHIC Mahmoud Juma’a Mua’az, slain in a reported US strike Sept 23 2014 (SNHR) -
Alleged cruise missile fragment recovered from the scene, Sept 2014 (SNHR)
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Remnants of the US missile supposedly used in the attack (via Salah Fojo)
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Basmala Jahjah who was reportedly in the strike (via SN4HR)
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Mohammad Abd Al-Hameed Jahjah who was reportedly killed in the strike (via SN4HR)
Geolocation notes (2) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention a residential building in Kafr Daryan (كفردريان) village. We identified building destroyed in (كفردريان) Kafr Daryan during the time period are: 36.176908, 36.668356. However, to the limited satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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Destroyed building in (كفردريان) Kafr Daryan. Before
Date taken:August 4, 2014Imagery:© 2018 Google -
Destroyed building in (كفردريان) Kafr Daryan. After
Date taken:September 10, 2015Imagery:© 2018 Google
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.