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Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: S1706)
Between 20 and as many as 60 non-combatants died in an alleged Coalition airstrike on Al Sha’afa, according to local media. A number of sources including Baladi News and the Syrian Unified Observatory, reported that the airstrikes hit both the towns of Al Sha’afa and Al Kashma, killing mostly civilians including women and children.
According to Sana News at least 60 civilians were either dead or injured as a result of the alleged Coalition airstrike on Al Sha’afa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it monitored the recovery of the bodies of at least 28 people after the airstrike on Al Sha’afa including 22 ISIS family members. It said that among the victims were eight “citizen women” and nine children under the age of eighteen. The Observatory later added that the toll of civilian casualties had risen to 32 civilians from the families of ISIS, including 13 children under the age of 18, and 12 women, while an additional 6 casualties were found to be IS members. Dozens of civilians were reportedly injured.
UNICEF published a statement in response expressing that “UNICEF is alarmed by recent reports of up to 30 children who have been killed in recent violence in Al Sha’afa village, in eastern Syria.”
On March 10, 2022 in the CJTF-OIR Civilian Casualty Report, the Coalition reported this incident to be “non-credible”, stating that “After review of all available evidence it was determined that more likely than not civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition strike.”