Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between two and four civilians including a child were alleged killed in a Coalition airstrike on Debsi Afnan, according to some local sources.
Al Natek reported that four non-combatants died in a Coalition strike. And the Syrian Network said “at least two civilians including a child died in International Coalition warplanes missiles fired on Debsi Afnan village.” According to Syria News Desk, “Three civilians were killed and 4 others injured when an international coalition plane targeted with a raid a car they were in on the Aleppo – Raqqa motorway near the town of Debsi Afnan which is under IS control in the western Raqqa countryside. The raid led to the burning of the car entirely.”
SY_reported put the death toll at four and said that a woman was also injured. They blamed the Coalition.
Smart News said that the Coalition targeted “a civilian car near Al-Qadesiya street which killed three civilians and wounded others.”
According to Raqqa Post, “Coalition warplanes carried out a raid in the village of Debsi Afnan, at Al-Qadesiya street near the stands for selling oil. Two people died: a 12-year-old boy and an old man.”
Arabstoday and Asrar7days also reported the death of the child and man, and pointed towards the Coalition.
However while both Step News and ISIL mentioned Coalition strikes on Debsi Afnan, neither mentioned civilian casualties.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Debsi Afnan (دبسي عفنان), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.8175348, 38.2162857. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (21) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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The aftermath of an alleged Coalition strike on a xxx in Debsi Afnan, Jan 11th (via Raqqa Post)
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 10th-11th 2017, the Coalition reported that “Near Ar Raqqah, five strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units and destroyed a front-end loader, a VBIED, a fighting position, and a tunnel entrance. Near Ayn Isa, three strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units and destroyed a vehicle, five fighting positions, a command and control node, a VBIED, and a heavy machine gun.”