(Previous Incident Code: S123)

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.