Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In the Amnesty and Airwars’s joint April 2019 report “War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality”, one civilian was reportedly killed in alleged Coalition artillery strikes in Raqqa. Although Airwars assesses single sourced incidents as “weak”, researchers have assessed this incident “fair” due to the depth of material provided by Amnesty.
The report stated that”Mohannad Mohammed Hsein Shehada was killed by an artillery shell which struck the family home.”
Mother of the victim, Rimal, told Amnesty in a testimony that “He was by the door when the shell struck. He was killed instantly. My other son and my husband were both injured.”
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.
On March 10, 2022 in the CJTF-OIR Civilian Casualty Report, the Coalition reported this incident to be “non-credible”, stating that “After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike.”
The incident occured at 15:30:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Coordinates released by the Coalition place the event at 35.94864, 38.99529
Summary
Sources (1) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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The house which was struck, two years on from the strike date. (via Amnesty)
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The house which was struck, two years on from the strike date. (via Amnesty)
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The house which was struck, two years on from the strike date. (via Amnesty)
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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Aug. 10, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via Amnesty International report. After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike. 2712/CS1362a 37SDV9957578252