Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between 11 and 15 civilians including an entire family died and dozens more were wounded in a reported airstrike near the al Mohadatha school in Abu Kamal, according to local media. Sources, however, were conflicted as to whether the US-led Coalition or Russia were to blame. A number of reports did not identify the warplanes responsible.
Almayadeen reported that the raids struck “Al Katef street, grain silos (Sawame’ Al Huboub) and the perimeter of Al-Shafei Mosque, and Dwar Al Masrya in the city of Albuqmal, killing five civilians.”
Another source reported that “Street Furn next to the mosque of Zahra, Al Sukaria, Siht house, buildings next to al Muhadetha school, Hari two houses, Alduir 9 raids material damage, al Mujawda material damage” were also damaged in the raid.
Jisr TV attributed the event to the Coalition, reporting that “international coalition aircraft carried out a new massacre in the town of Abu Kamal, killing 13 civilians, nine of them from one family. A further 15 were seriously wounded.”
Al Boosleh (a pro-regime source), also pointed towards the Coalition, putting the death toll at twelve. Citing the state-run SANA news agency it reported “a new attack by the International Coalition led by the United States of America. SANA said that 12 civilians, mostly children and women, were killed as a result of the bombing of the American coalition aircraft to the homes of the people in the village of Baqrs Fuqani and the city of Albuqmal rural Deir Alzour.”
However, according to Deir Ezzor 24, Step News Agency and Sound and Picture, Russia was responsible. Death counts in reports varied between 11 and 14 civilians.
There was serious damage to civilian homes and many victims trapped under the rubble for hours, according to local media.
As well as the nine named victims, VDC named five unidentified adult males.
The incident occured at 05:30:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (46) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (6) [ collapse]
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Abu Kamal, 2nd October 2017. (via Fjr Albokamal)
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Abu Kamal, 2nd October 2017. (via Fjr Albokamal)
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Abu Kamal, 2nd October 2017. (via Fjr Albokamal)
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Abu Kamal, 2nd October 2017. (via @MousaAlomar)
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The aftermath of airstrikes on Abu Kamal, 2nd October 2017. (via Syrian PC)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Abu Kamal (البوكمال), for which the coordinates are: 34.466049, 40.907593. The strikes targeted residential buildings near Mohadatha school (المحدثة) and the area around the Fatima al Zahra mosque (الزهراء فاطمة) for which due to limited 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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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 October 1st-2nd the Coalition reporetd: “Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed two ISIS well heads and a fighting position.Near Dayr Az Zawr, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two headquarters.”