Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Two named children died in an alleged Coalition airstrike on a school in the village of al Hammadi in the al Shadadi countryside, according to local media.
Multiple sources reported that the Haddaj Sharqi school was struck by the Coalition, killing two children.
The incident was first reported on August 4, 2017 at 4:57 pm by مرصد الحسكة @AlhasakaArabea on Facebook.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention Haddaj Sharqi (East) school (ﻣﺪﺭﺳﺔﻫﺪﺍﺝﺷﺮﻗﻲ), al Hammadi village (ﻗﺮﻳﺔﺍﻟﺤﻤﺎﺩﻱ ) in al Shadadi (ﺍﻟﺸﺪﺍﺩﻱ ) countryside near the Iraqi border, Al-Hasakah governorate. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the coordinates of either al Hammadi village (ﻗﺮﻳﺔﺍﻟﺤﻤﺎﺩﻱ) or the school. There are three buildings labeled as schools on Wikimapia east of Haddaj village and near the Iraq/Syria border, but it is unclear if any of these are the school that was reported to have been targeted. The coordinates for these three schools are: 36.017222, 41.207778; 35.977500, 41.247222; and 35.961667, 41.203889. We did locate al Shadadi town (ﺍﻟﺸﺪﺍﺩﻱ ), for which the coordinates are: 36.052222, 40.728889, and Haddaj village (حداج), for which the coordinates are: 36.035833, 41.056389.
Summary
Sources (9) [ collapse]
Attached to this civilian harm incident is a provisional reconciliation of the Pentagon's declassified assessment of this civilian harm allegation, based on matching date and locational information.
The declassified documents were obtained by Azmat Khan and the New York Times through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits filed since March 2017, and are included 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
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After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
“On Aug. 4, near Al Shadaddi, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a command and control node.”