Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In an incident previously unknown to Airwars, the Coalition announced on December 1st 2016 that it had assessed a claimed incident ‘near Aleppo’ on May 5th – but that no strikes had been conducted in the vicinity.
According to the Coalition release, “May 5, 2016, near Aleppo, Syria: No Coalition strikes were conducted on that day in the geographical area.”
The only possible external match found by Airwars researchers was a report citing the Syrian Observatory as saying that “a civilian was killed in Western Aleppo due to opposition shelling a few minutes after the beginning of the ceasefire.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Aleppo (ﺣﻠﺐ), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.197971, 37.1656697. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (2) [ 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 geographical area.
Original strike reports
The Coalition reports for May 4th-5th 2016 that “Near Mar’a, three strikes struck an ISIL logistics facility, an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) facility and an ISIL ammunition storage center.”