Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A reported Coalition airstrike on the local water company killed at least five workers, according to sources.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered reported that “three people working at the water company in al Jarnia – one of them the water manager – were killed in international coalition raids targeting the company today.” Baladi News placed the death toll at seven, while Syria Post reported ten deaths. Pro-regime website JP News reported that “Coalition warplanes killed the workers in the water company thought those workers are not ISIS member, and they had been working there even before ISIS was found 3 years ago.”
Syria News Desk cited local activist Mohamed Osman, quoting civilian sources from the village: “The wounded were taken by villagers to the National Hospital in Raqqa, after raids resulted in the destruction of a large civic building institution, in addition to the destruction of an apartment building nearby and other property.”
In an emailed response to a report submitted by Airwars on this and other incidents in December 2016, Coalition officials requested additional information concerning the alleged event.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Jarnia (الجرنية), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.16054, 38.23337. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (23) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Omar al Ahmad al Omar (via RBSS)
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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After a review of available information it was assessed that no Coalition strikes were conducted in the geographical area that correspond to the report of civilian casualties.
Original strike reports
For December 4th-5th 2016 the Coalition reported that ” Near Ar Raqqah, three strikes [1 British with others] engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a weapons production facility, a vehicle, and a bulldozer.”