Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In an incident previously unknown to Airwars, on December 1st 2016 the Coalition said it had concluded an assessment on a possible incident “near Hama, Iraq”. Officials later informed Airwars that the alleged incident in fact took place near Hama, Syria.
The incident was reported in the December 2016 Coalition report as: “Feb. 15, 2016, near Hama, Iraq: No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographical area.”
In January 2017, the same incident was published with the correct location but incorrect date: “1. Feb. 2, 2016, Hama Province, Syria: No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographic area of the reported civilian casualties.”
In February 2017, the Coalition republished the incident and corrected the date: “1. Feb. 15, 2016, Hama Province, Syria, via social media report: Date correction. This report was previously incorrectly released as Feb. 2, 2016 in the Jan. 2, 2016 monthly report. No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographic area of the reported civilian casualties.”
Airwars researchers have so far found only one report of civilian casualties that day in Hama but the source claims Russia was responsible.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Hama (حماة), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.3949071, 36.543143. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (4) [ 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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No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographic area of the reported civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
For February 14th-16th 2016, the Coalition publicly reported no strikes in Hama governorate.