Airwars assessment
Eleven civilians from one family were killed in alleged Coalition airstrikes in Raqqa. Originally the names of the victims were published under incident number CS1054, however Amnesty research assessed that there were two separate strikes, this one occurring at 11pm, while the other occurred at 6pm.
Amnesty has placed the strike on the 21st despite Aadel Hayoun – a resident and survivor of another strike – suggesting that the strike occurred “a month before I left Raqqa and I left on 17 September”. This would place the Duehi strike in mid-August 2017. All other sources and information gathered allude that the strike occurred on the 21st.
The Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality” states that, “Eleven members of the Dueihi family – seven children, two women and two men – were killed when the five-story building where the family was sheltering was destroyed in a coalition air strike.”
The family was – according to interviewees – residing on the ground floor of the building.
Isra, a relative of one of the victims told Amnesty in a testimony that “The building where the Dueihi family was staying was bombed and they were all killed. We fled our home immediately after and it was then that all the men in my family were killed in another air strike.”
In their June 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 incident occured at 23:00:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (12)
- Mohammed Abdel al Duehi Age unknown male killed
- Mohannad Abdel al-Karim Duehi 35 years old male killed
- Fatima 25 years old female Mohannad's wife killed
- Abdelkarim Child male Mohannad and Fatima's son killed
- Son of Mohannad and Fatima Child male killed
- Daughter of Mohannad and Fatima Child female killed
- Firaz’s wife Adult female Firaz was Mohannad’s brother who had previously died killed
- Child 1 Child female child of Firaz and his wife killed
- Child 2 Child female child of Firaz and his wife killed
- Child 3 Child female child of Firaz and his wife killed
- Child 4 Child male child of Firaz and his wife killed
- Child 5 Child male child of Firaz and his wife killed
- Unknown male 1 Adult male killed
- Unknown male 2 Adult male killed
- Unknown male 3 Adult male killed
Summary
Sources (22) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (18) [ collapse]
Attached to this civilian harm incident is the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, 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
-
June 21, 2017, in Raqqah, Syria, 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. 3114/CS1054b 37SDV992793
Original strike reports
Not yet assessed.