Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A single source, Smart News, reported that “IS members were killed and civilians injured on Thursday, in aerial bombardment likely to be by the international coalition which targeted an IS vehicle east of the city of Raqqa, according to witnesses and medical sources.”
No further details are currently available.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
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 (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 18th-19th the Coalition publicly noted: “Near Ar Raqqah, 12 strikes engaged four ISIL tactical units, six fighting positions, a house borne IED, a tactical vehicle, a checkpoint, and two tunnels; suppressed four ISIL tactical units; and damaged a supply route.”