(Previous Incident Code: S378)

A major US airstrike on an al Nusra Front headquarters – a unilateral action – killed a significant number of militants. However, up to 26 Free Syrian Army prisoners held in the building were also reported killed, along with three children.

The US admitted responsibility for just one civilian death three years later.

Fatah al Sham blamed the international Coalition at the time, with spokesman Abu Anas al-Shami saying in a statement: “The headquarters targeted by the international coalition a short time ago are a main headquarters for that area and contains a number branch offices, leading to the killing of the brothers.”

Given that the target was al Nusra, this was thought most likely to be a unilateral US action. The Coalition’s spokesman Colonel John Dorrian later confirmed that the attack “was a US strike.”

As the Pentagon’s own spokesman Peter Cook also noted: ““Al-Qaida’s foreign terrorist fighter network used this headquarters as a gathering place, and their leaders directed terrorist operations out of this location. As you know, al-Qaida remains committed to carrying out terrorist attacks against the United States, our interests, and our allies and friends. We will continue to take actions to deny any safe haven for al-Qaida in Syria. We will not allow al-Qaida to grow its capacity to attack the United States or our allies around the world, and these strikes demonstrate that commitment.”

AFP cited the Syrian Observatory as saying that “Among the dead were leading members of the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front, who had been holding a meeting.” Almost all sources also reported civilian fatalities.

Idlib Media Centre reported “Civilian martyrs and wounded including prisoners, due to Coalition warplanes shelling a Fatah Al-Sham building in Samara.” Shaam News reported that the strikes “killed around 40 – the majority of whom are prisoners who were detained by Fatah Al-Sham.” Qasioun said the attack occurred at 3.55pm and injured “dozens.”

According to Al Khaleej, “44 were killed including 26 prisoners of the Free Syrian Army, 15 members of Fatah Al-Sham and three children and it’s not known whether the children were prisoners, or children of Fatah Al-Sham members.”

A local activist told Airwars the following: “Al-Nusra Front still denies the existence of civilian [prisoners] in its headquarters. But families were able to recognise a number of the bodies who were previous detainees and missing people, which confirms that the headquarters was transformed into a prison recently.” One of those victims – 10 year old Haytham – was reportedly being held on theft charges when he was killed.

However Al Souria insisted that the facility was not a prison, and that more than 20 members of Al Nusra were instead killed.

Syrian Revolution has named the four prisoners as killed. In addition, a local activist provided Airwars with five additional names of reported civilian fatalities.

On March 4th 2017 the Coalition claimed it did not have enough information to determine whether civilians died in the raid, noting: “Jan. 3, 2017, Sarmada, Syria, via social media report: The report contained insufficient information on the time, location and details of strike to assess its credibility.”

However in January 2020, the Coalition conceded one civilian death in the event, noting: “January 3, 2017, in Sarmada, Syria, via media report. US aircraft conducted an airstrike against an Al Qaida facility. Regrettably, one civilian was unintentionally killed as a result of the strike. 306/CS425 37SBA952069”.

In May 2020, the Pentagon also included this event in its annual civilian harm report to Congress.