Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Two civilians, father and son died following alleged US-led Coalition airstrikes on Raqqa city – or as a result of ISIS actions in the city.
Discrepancies in the sources show Revolutionary Command Council in the city of Palmyra and Death page suspected the the men were executed by members of the so-called Islamic State organization. The two sources said they were killed “on the ground close to one of the organizations barriers around the city”. All other sources attributed the deaths to the US-led Coalition.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (8) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Father and son Asaad Gomaa Al Ramadan and Mohamed Gomaa Ramadan - who according to reports were either murdered by ISIS or died in a Coalition strike
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Raqqa (الرقة), for which the coordinates are: 35.9505639, 39.0094148. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further
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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The report contains insufficient information of the time, location and details to assess its credibility
Original strike reports
For September 11th – 12th the Coalition reported: “Near Raqqah, 31 strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and destroyed 24 fighting positions, 17 vehicles, three logistics nodes, an ISIS headquarters, an IED, and a command and control node.” It additionally reported that “On Sept. 11, near Raqqah, 16 strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed 17 fighting positions and a logistics node.” And that “On Sept. 11, near Raqqah, Syria, one strike destroyed an ISIS fighting position.”
For September 12th -13th the Coalition reported: "Near Raqqah, 56 strikes engaged 17 ISIS tactical units; destroyed 56 fighting positions, three logistics nodes, and two vehicles; and suppressed a fighting position" The Coalition later reported, "On Sept. 12, near Hawijah, Iraq, two strikes destroyed four ISIS tunnels, an anti-air artillery system, a mortar system, a weapons cache, an IED facility, a command and control node and a staging area. On Sept. 12, near Raqqah, Syria, five strikes destroyed 19 ISIS vehicles; and suppressed a fighting position"