Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

CS197

Incident date

April 5, 2016

Location

إدلب, Idlib, Syria

Geolocation

35.93062, 36.63393 Note: The accuracy of this location is to City level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A former Syrian table tennis champion and national coach named as Mukhles Ismaeil Khreaban was reported by VDC as having died “Due to coalition air force’s shelling.”

The Public Committee for Sports and Youth in Syria later published a detailed obituary: “The teacher Mukhles Khreiban was martyred yesterday on Tuesday evening in the province of Idlib in a raid by an unmanned drone accroding to information received from Idlib. Mukhles Khreiban was born in 1953 … he was a member of the Syrian world championship team and participated in the 1980 world championship in Korea .. He worked nationally as a coach and was number one in the game. Many of the stars of football were trained by him. He also worked as a member of the Technical Committee of Table Tennis in the province and was a former member of the trainers committee for the Syrian Table Tennis Federation.. His son has been detained in Assad’s prisons for nearly 4 years. He has four boys and three girls. The Public Committee for Sports and Youth in Syria extends heartfelt condolences to the family of the martyr hero, We belong to God and to Him we return.”

In their June 2020 civilian casualty report, the US-led Coalition assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that the allegation provided insufficient information on the timing and location of the strike to make a determination.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Adult male killed

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the city of Idlib (إدلب), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.93062, 36.63393. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1
  • (1 man)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition

Sources (3) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]

  • Mukhles Ismaeil Khreaban (via VDC)
  • Mukhles Ismaeil Khreaban (via The Public Committee for Sports and Youth in Syria).

US-led Coalition Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition
  • US-led Coalition position on incident
    Non credible / Unsubstantiated
    Insufficient information to assess that, more likely than not, a Coalition strike resulted in civilian casualties.
  • Reason for non-credible assessment
    Insufficient information on the time and location
  • Civilian deaths conceded
    None
  • Civilian injuries conceded
    None
  • MGRS coordinate
    37SBV867775
    Military Grid Reference System

Civilian casualty statements

US-led Coalition
  • Jun 24, 2020
  • Apr. 5, 2016, in Idlib, Syria, via Airwars report. The report contains insufficient information of the time, location, or details to assess its credibility. 2929/CS197 37SBV867775

Original strike reports

US-led Coalition

No strikes were publicly reported in the vicinity for April 4th-5th.

Summary

  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1
  • (1 man)
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    US-led Coalition

Sources (3) [ collapse]