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Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: S1708)
Alleged Coalition airstrikes targeted Al Kashma and Al Sha’afa in what was described as “a new massacre of dozens of civilians” according to local media. Between 20 and 50 civilians were reported to have died as a result of “25 raids” on both locations on November 13th. According to Orient News, both Al Kashma and Al Sha’afa were under IS control at the time but included a large number of displaced families.
There were varying reports on the number of civilians; the official Al Sha’afa Facebook page claimed all casualties resulting these strikes were civilian, whereas The Euphrates Exiles Facebook claimed all casualties were ISIS members and their families.
The majority of sources reported on 35 civilian fatalities, of whom most were reported to be women and children.
The death toll was estimated to be higher by @Kalmuqdad Qasioun, placing it at 50 civilian deaths.
According to Jisr TV, “British General Christopher Ghika, deputy commander of the Joint Task Force of the US-led International Alliance Against State Regime, said they were investigating allegations of civilian deaths in raids by the Syrian alliance in Deir al-Zour.”
The statement was made in video conference at the Pentagon, which reviewed operations against state organization in Syria and Iraq on Tuesday. According to the official transcript, when asked about 20 civilian deaths General Ghika commented: “I think that we have to be particularly aware of people who put stories like this into the information space, knowing that they’re not true. And then we all run off on them. So these are unsubstantiated at this stage. We will investigate them, as we investigate every allegation of civilian casualties.”
In its October 2020 monthly civilian casualty review, the US-led Coalition classed this event as ‘non credible’, asserting that “This report contains insufficient information on time, location, or details to assess its credibility.”
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention multiple strikes on the village of Al Kashma (الكشمة) and Al Sha’afa (الشعفة). Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for a point between these two locations are: 34.595168, 40.937231.
Reports of the incident mention multiple strikes on the village of Al Kashma (الكشمة) and Al Sha’afa (الشعفة).
Imagery: Google Earth