Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Four civilians were reported killed and two others injured following an alleged Coalition strike on Harmala.
The Shaam News Network reported that “international coalition planes launched air raids near Harmala village north west of Raqqa which led to the deaths of four martyrs and a number of wounded.”
All other sources, including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian Press Center and Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, also attributed the incident to the Coalition – and put the death toll at four.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Harmala (حرملة), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.2059144, 38.6696434. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (12) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ 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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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 January 8th-9th, the Coalition reported that “Near Ar Raqqah, 15 strikes [1 British] engaged five ISIL tactical units; destroyed six oil refinement stills, three supply caches, two bridges, two artillery systems, a VBIED, a bulldozer, a UAV, an IED, a dump truck, a pontoon bridge, a tank, and an armored vehicle; and damaged a supply route. Near Ayn Isa, one strike destroyed a repeater station.”