(Previous Incident Code: S1129)

Investigations for the April 2019 joint Airwars and Amnesty report War in Raqqa: Rethoric versus Reality (www.raqqa.amnesty.org) reported that on July 22 nine members of the Al-Zanna family were killed in a coalition air strike while sheltering in a basement under a parade of empty shops in Museum Square. Hours later another Coalition air strike two streets away killed 15 other members of the same family who were sheltering on the ground floor of a four-storey building. The second strike can be found here: CS1286a. Amnesty researchers spoke to a relative, Abdellatif: “The family had tried to leave Raqqa but Daesh (IS) prevented them, and Daesh also kicked them out of home near the old mosque. So, they took shelter in whatever place they thought they would be safe.” The strike happened between 1.30 and 2pm. Amnesty also interviewed a survivor named Salah Ahmad Hamdan, 46, who survived with Dhiba, Khalil’s wife, who testified to the event.

In July 2019 the Coalition announced that it had assessed this allegation of civilian harm to be non-credible. Their monhtly civilian casualty report noted: “After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties.”