Geolocation
Airwars assessment
The death of between one and three people was reported by local media sources, following alleged US-led Coalition strikes on the city of Raqqa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights “documented the death of three people after the bombing of downtown Raqqa by International Coalition aircraft”, though did not provide details of the civilians reported killed.
Two other sources identified one victim of the strikes, a young man who was located near the Mosque Al Ansar when he was killed. All sources said the US-led Coalition was responsible for the attacks.
While most reports of the casualties emerged on September 1st, the Facebook site Documentary of Victims of Ar Raqqa said Mr al Saeed died on August 27th.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention Al Ansar Mosque (الأنصار) in Wahda (الوحد) neighbourhood. The coordinates for Al Ansar Mosque (الأنصار) are: 35.959724, 39.001615.
Summary
Sources (8) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ 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
For August 27th-28th the Coalition reported “Near Raqqah, 29 strikes engaged 13 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 19 fighting positions, five logistics nodes, three vehicles, three ISIS headquarters, two VBIEDs, and two command and control nodes.” It additionally reported that “On Aug. 27 near Raqqah, Syria, 24 strikes engaged 20 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 22 fighting positions, two anti-aircraft artillery systems, and two logistics nodes.” And that “On Aug. 27, near Raqqah, Syria, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions.”
‘Sunday 27 August – Typhoons and Tornados bombed ten Daesh positions in Raqqa.’