(Previous Incident Code: S1759)

According to sources on the ground, a family of five civilians was killed “by artillery shelling of SDF” on their house in the town of Al Soussa.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the family consisted of three children and their parents who were all killed. The Network dated the incident to January 9th, whereas other sources dated it January 10th.

Additional civilians were also reported wounded, but few further details were given. Horriya said that some were in a critical condition.

Although it was alleged that SDF artillery had been responsible for the casualties, Airwars understands that only the US-led Coalition had access to field artillery at the time in this vicinity. This is therefore classed by us as a potential Coalition civilian harm event.

In its January 2021 monthly civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition determined this event to be ‘non credible’, asserting: “After a review of all available records it was assessed that no Coalition actions were conducted in the geographical area that corresponds to the report of civilian casualties.”