(Previous Incident Code: S996)

Sources reported that up to 18 civilians, including several women and children, were killed in alleged Coalition air and artillery strikes on the Al Dar’yra neighbourhood of Raqqa, near the Al Safa Mosque.

All 18 sources reporting the incident alleged that the Coalition was responsible.

A number of the dead were buried under the rubble and, at the time of reporting, only three bodies had been recovered. LCCSY noted “The death of a mother and three of her children and a family of seven people, in addition to other martyrs whose bodies are still under the rubble and dozens of wounded in air raids on al Dari’ya district in the city of #raqqa.”

Initially, based on local sources, Airwars researchers had determined that the incident took place on July 2nd. However, after reviewing an August 2017 report by Amnesty International, the date was amended.

According to the report, a family of five, two parents and three children were hit by an airstrike in their house near Makhbas al Tayar [Tayar bakery], not far from Madrasseh al Farouq [Farouq school] and the Old Mosque on July 1st around 5pm.

Amnesty International initially identified the family as an internally displaced family from Deir Ezzor.

Despite this information regarding the family, it has since been discovered by Amnesty International field researchers that the family died when an airstrike hit a three story building – Al-Hariri building – at 5pm. They were killed alongside civilians from two other families. The victims have therefore been removed from this case. Please see case CS1144 for more details.

As stated the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, reported that “Nine people – seven children, one woman and one man – from three families were killed when a three storey house was destroyed in an air strike.”

In a survivors testimony, the mother of the al Abdullah family, Rimal, stated in an emotional interview that “My entire family was taken from me, why? My four children and my husband; everything that was dear to me. Why did they kill them? I have nothing left to live for.”

A neighbour who witnessed the strike told Amnesty International that the nearest ISIS target was some 100 metres away.

The Coalition has reported that this event is currently under review as number 276 from the cases awaiting assessment.