Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Up to 20 adult civilians were reported killed and injured alongside 15 children after Coalition aircraft reportedly bombed forcibly-engaged civilians who were being forced to dig ditches by Islamic State. The children reportedly belonged to ISIL’s Cubs of Al Khilafa youth organisation. The casualties occurred in the morning at the village of Krin, west of Tabaqah, alongside an estimated 50 Daesh fighters.
Raqaa is Being Slaughtered Silently later published a report on the event: “The bombing resulted in the killing of a number of what the organisation (IS) refers to as “Cubs of the Caliphate”, in addition to more than 20 civilians who had been hired, at 2,500 Syrian pounds a day [c £13], to work on digging trenches. There were also a number of civilians who had been detained on various charges, such as smoking and failure to pray, and whose punishment was being made to dig trenches.”
SOHR placed the number of adults killed at 15, slightly lower than other sources.
There were later efforts to spread false propaganda about the strike, including images of events [GRAPHIC] which had taken place weeks earlier at Douma.
In their monthly civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition has indicated that the credibility of this civilian harm allegation is in the process of being assessed.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Al-Thawrah (Tabaqah) (الثورة), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.8295049, 38.5360909. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (10) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (4) [ collapse]
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Islamic State banner reporting that more than 30 people were killed following alleged coalition raids on the village of Krin west of Tabaqah. It specifies that there were among the planes Apaches and drones. tweeted on 9th September 2015 by @journalist_omar [account now suspended]
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This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Photo of victim of alleged coalition raids on the village of Krin west of Tabaqah. Tweeted on 9th September 2015 by @journalist_omar [account now suspended] -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Photo of victim of alleged coalition raids on the village of Krin west of Tabaqah. Tweeted on 9th September 2015 by @algareeb333 [account now suspended] -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Original strike reports
The Coalition reported a single airstrike in the vicinity for September 8th-9th 2015: “Near Ar Raqqah, one airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit and an ISIL training camp and destroyed five ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL motorcycle.”