Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An adult male civilian was reported killed by multiple local sources. The cause of death was somewhat conflicted.
Seven of the eleven sources attribute the attack to a landmine, whilst others cited the use of artillery. Airwars understands that only the US-led Coalition have access to artillery in Raqqa.
In a post from Ar Raqqa Al a’ahyla the so-called Islamic State organisation was alleged responsible. It suggested that the organisation planted a landmine which exploded, resulting in Hamoud Rashid Dandoush’s death.
The Raqqa Media Center however blame the US-Coalition and reported that he was killed “as a result of the artillery bombardment of the city of Al-Raqqa”.
A post from Amer Alywy on the Documentary of Victims of Ar Raqqa Facebook group claimed that Hamoud Rashid Dandoush was killed in his own residence due to “shelling”.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (11) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Hamoud Rashid al-Dandoush, reportedly killed in Raqqa on August 5th 2017, though sources were conflicted as to how he died. (via Amer Alywy in Documentary of victims of Ar Raqqa)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident only mention the city of Raqqa (الرقة), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.9505639, 39.0094148. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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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The report contains insufficient information of the time, location and details to assess its credibility.
Original strike reports
For August 5th-6th, the Coalition reported: “Near Raqqah, 23 strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed 19 fighting positions, five ISIS-held buildings, three IED factories, an ISIS communications tower and a UAS launch site.” It additionally reported that “On Aug. 5, near Raqqah, Syria, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed four fighting positions and a heavy machine gun.”