Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A British schoolgirl Kadiza Sultana – who had run away with two friends to join ISIL – was killed in a Coalition strike on an ‘ISIL finance centre’ – a local bank.
Sultana reportedly lived in an apartment above the building targeted that day. The US has not admitted civilian deaths related to this strike, only to one on an ‘ISIL headquarters building’ (see above.)
Raqqa is being Slaughtered noted at the time that “air raids at dawn today targeted the Islamic bank opposite al Rashid Park and Bank Bemo in al Thakana which led to the total destruction of Bank Bimo.” Photographs showed the six-story building totally destroyed.
In the first of their September 2020 civilian casualty reports, the US-led Coalition assessed reports that they were responsible for civilian harm in this strike as “non-credible”, stating that after a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Ar Raqqah (الرقة), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.9505639, 39.0094148. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (9) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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CCTV footage showing (left to right) Kadiza Sultana,16, Shamima Begum,15 and 15-year-old Amira Abase going through security at Gatwick airport. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA (via The Guardian)
US-led Coalition Assessment:
Civilian casualty statements
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June 22, 2016, in Raqqah, Syria, via Airwars report. After a review of all available records it was determined that, more likely than not, the alleged civilian casualties did not occur as a result of a Coalition action. 2980/CS238 37SEV008782
Original strike reports
For June 21st-22nd the Coalition reported “Near Ar Raqqah, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL headquarters, and an ISIL finance center and destroyed two ISIL oil pump jacks.”