Airwars assessment
In an incident not previously tracked by Airwars, the Coalition later confirmed the deaths of two civilians in an event near Raqqa.
Their October 2017 civilian casualty report noted: “During a Coalition strike that engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building, it was assessed that two civilians were unintentionally killed.”
Airwars had monitored a civilian harm event in the nearby al Badu neighbourhood on this day (see CS1369). Coalition officials have indicated that they don’t believe these allegations to be referring to the same strike as the confirmed self-report was not in the neighbourhood mentioned in the allegations of CS1369. However, they were unable to match the victim observed in the credible self-report to a specific name – so there is a possibility. They have currently assessed CS1369 to be non-credible due to there not being any corroborating strikes in the geographical area.
This is one of the three events in which the Coalition has confirmed to have caused civilian casualties on August 13th — see CS1368 and CS1371.
In July 2019, the Coalition provided Airwars with the location of this incident, accurate to within a 100 metre box.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (1) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Prior to the Coalition releasing the MGRS for this incident, Airwars had geolocated it to the nearest city at 35.9505639, 39.0094148
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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Aug. 13, 2017, near Raqqah, Syria, via self-report. During a Coalition strike that engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building, it was assessed that two civilians were unintentionally killed.
Original strike reports
For August 12th-13th the Coalition reported *Near Raqqah, 15 strikes engaged 14 ISIS tactical units and destroyed three command and control nodes, two ISIS headquarters, an ISIS UAS launch site and a vehicle. It additionally reported that “On Aug. 12, near Raqqah, Syria, 21 strikes engaged 16 ISIS tactical units and destroyed a fighting position, an anti-aircraft artillery system, and a mortar system.” And that “On Aug. 12, near Raqqah, Syria, one strike destroyed an ISIS fighting position.”
For Aug 9-15th, France report 2 strikes in Raqqah, Syria – and 13 artillery missions in Mosul.
In the past week, (11th-18th) France conducted 27 sorties, including 22 armed reconnaissance and ground support (CAS), 1 refueling outlet and 4 intelligence gathering sorties by Atlantic 2 or Rafale patrols. Two strikes were carried out in the Raqqah region of Syria. They helped support the Syrian democratic forces in their offensive to retake the city.
‘OPÉRATION CHAMMAL SITUATION En Syrie, A Raqqah, la progression des forces démocratiques syriennes se poursuit. Au sud de la ville, la manœuvre de tenaille, amorcée il y a 15 jours, s’est achevée en fin de semaine dernière. Elle a permis de réaliser la jonction des fronts est et ouest. Depuis, les forces démocratiques syriennes ont relancé une offensive vers le centre de la ville mais elles font face à une défense acharnée des combattants de Daech. En Irak, Les forces de sécurité irakiennes poursuivent leurs opérations dans l’objectif de libérer, à terme, le nord de l’Irak. Actuellement, elles focalisent leur effort sur l’encerclement de la ville de Tall Afar. Les combattants de l’organisation terroriste réalisent un travail de valorisation de leurs positions défensives pour se préparer aux combats à venir alors que les populations tentent de fuir la ville. ACTIVITÉS DE LA FORCE Les soldats de l’opération Chammal poursuive leur mission d’appui au profit des unités irakiennes engagées contre Daech. Cette semaine, sur le théâtre, les aéronefs ont réalisé 27 sorties aériennes dont 22 de reconnaissance armée et d’appui au sol (CAS), 1 sortie de ravitaillement ainsi que 4 sorties de recueil de renseignement par Atlantique 2 ou patrouille de Rafale. Deux frappes ont été conduites dans la région de Raqqah en Syrie. Elles ont permis d’appuyer les forces démocratiques syriennes dans leur offensive pour reprendre la ville. La Task Force (TF) Wagram a mené de son côté 13 missions de tir en appui de la 15e division à l’ouest de Mossoul vers Tal Afar. En particulier, les artilleurs ont fourni des feux de harcèlement et d’éclairement pour interdire aux combattants de Daech de mener des actions au sol ou de réaliser des tirs indirects contre les positions irakiennes. Le bilan global de l’activité aérienne depuis le 19 septembre 2014 s’élève 1330 frappes, 2102 objectifs détruits et 6946 sorties. ‘
‘Sunday 13 August – Typhoons eliminated three terrorist positions in Raqqa, including machine-gun and mortar teams…then conducting attacks on Sunday [Aug 13th] which eliminated three more terrorist positions in the city, including a strongpoint adjacent to the now-abandoned Daesh “Immigration Office”, and machine-gun and mortar teams.’