Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Initially this incident was reported on by several sources as an alleged airstrike or artillery shelling in various neighbourhoods in the city of Raqqa, in which eight cilivilians died, including one woman.
There was a discrepancy regarding civilians identified in the list. Amjad Ahmed Taha Al-Suwairi, Mohammed Ayman Sweiri and Ahmad Taha Al-Omar Al Suweiri, were documented in a subsequent report by @Raqqa24. The Tweet stated they died in an aerial offensive, also suspected to have been carried out by the Coalition two days earlier, on August 27th. One man named Adnan al-Mubarak Abo Ghadab was also killed in the attack according to local media, though he was not documented as part of the list other sources distributed.
All sources said the US-led Coalition was responsible, they referred to an “aerial bombardment” combined with “artillery”. Airwars understands that only the Coalition have access to artillery in Raqqa. Correspondence Airwars made with RBSS revealed the eight civilians reported killed were situated in various neighbourhoods of Raqqa, the identity of victims was unable to be matched with exact locations.
During investigations of this event for the April 2019 joint Airwars and Amnesty report War in Raqqa: Rethoric versus Reality (www.raqqa.amnesty.org), Amnesty field researchers were able to identify the location of the strike in which eight members of the Sueri family was killed, three of which were originally named in this report. Find this incident here: CS1429b.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Ar Raqqah: Various neighbourhoods, 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.
Summary
Sources (11) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Al-Haj Ahmad Al-Alwan, killed in an alleged Coalition airstrike on Raqqa, 29th August 2017. (via Ahmad Shbl)
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 29th – 30th the Coalition reported “Near Raqqah, 46 strikes engaged 30 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 66 fighting positions, five heavy machine guns, five vehicles, three medium machine guns, three anti-air systems, three ISIS communications lines, two command and control nodes, an ISIS headquarters, a weapons cache, an ISIS staging area, a VBIED, damaged eight fighting positions and suppressed two heavy machine guns.” It was additionally reported that “On Aug. 29, near Raqqah, Syria, 16 strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units and destroyed nine fighting positions, a VBIED, a heavy machine gun, and a command and control node.”