Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Four civilians were reportedly killed and seven injured in a night time Coaltion strike on al Rahiat near Raqqa.
According to Smart News “warplanes bombed, late on Thursday night, the band 17, al Assadiya farm and Al Rahiat, north of Raqqa, killing four civilians, including two women, and injuring seven others, including children, were killed, all by shelling on Rahiat.” It was the only agency to report civilian casualties.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Rahiat (الرحيات), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.08, 39.05917. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (3) [ 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 February 8th-9th the Coalition reported: “Near Raqqah, 14 strikes engaged five ISIL tactical units; destroyed two fighting positions, two tunnel entrances, a tactical vehicle, a vehicle, and an IED; and damaged six supply routes.”