Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: S1263)
Ten civilians from one family, including six women and two children, were reported killed following airstrikes by the US-led Coalition according to local sources.
Reports said the strikes hit a residential building in the city of Raqqa in which the family were located, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently named the victims.
Syrianpc said an unknown number of civilians were also injured in the bombing, they also attributed the incident to the US-led Coalition.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights put the death toll at nine including two children and three women, reporting that the victims died when “International Coalition warplanes missiles fired on 23 Shubat Street in center of Raqqa city, September 4, 2017.”
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 10 civilians were killed, “including 6 citizen women and including 8 members from at least of one family”.
Although initially Airwars reported that this incident occurred on September 4th 2017, it has since been uncovered by Amnesty on the ground researchers that the incident occurred on the 16th August.
The victims were all reported to have been killed “including six children, three women and one men – were killed when their home was destroyed by an airstrike.”
The sister of a victim – Haifa – “The air strike killed everybody; only my brother Ahmad survived because he had gone to watch news at the neighbours who had electricity.”
In February 2019, the Coalition assessed this event to be non-credible. Their report noted: “After review of all available strike records it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike.”
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. In response to an Airwars query, the US-led Coalition stated that “more information concerning the allegations would be necessary to facilitate a thorough investigation by CJTF-OIR”.
Victims
Family members (10)
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Initially reports of the incident mentioned that the alleged Coalition airstrike targeted a residential building in the city of Raqqa, most likely on the western end of February 23 street (شارع ٢٣ شباط), for which the coordinates are: 35.950149, 39.012816. IS propaganda mentions the neighbourhood of Al Firdous (فردوس). Amnesty field research pointed to the exact location of the building: 35.959404, 39.002381.

The neighbourhood of Al Firdous (فردوس) and February 23 street (شارع ٢٣ شباط) in the city of Raqqa
Imagery: © 2018 Google

Before strike. (via Amnesty)

After strike. (via Amnesty)