Geolocation
Airwars assessment
According to Syria’s Violations Documentation Center, a Coalition airstrike at Tal Hamis – scene of a major battle between Kurdish forces and Islamic State at the time – resulted in the death of a male teenager.
In July 2017, the Coalition classed the event as non credible on grounds of lack of available evidence of civilian harm: “Feb. 23, 2015, near Tal Hamis, Syria, via Airwars report: After a review of available information and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find that civilians were harmed in this strike.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention the village of Tall Hamis (تل حميس), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.75514, 41.399094. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (3) [ collapse]
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 that civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
The coalition did not begin referencing airstrikes at Tal Hamis until February 27th-28th. Prior to then it is likely that any strikes were grouped with activity around Kobane.