Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between 18 and 50 civilians died in an airstrike on Al Bab, according to local sources. While the Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported that ten civilians including two children and four women died in an alleged Coalition airstrie, other sources blamed Tiurkey.
A second report by SN4HR said that “International Coalition warplanes missiles fired on the makeshift hospital in Al Bab city in Aleppo governorate eastern suburbs, severely damaging its building and rendering it inoperable”.
However, Syria News Desk reported that the “Turkish army targeted the eastern neighborhoods in al Bab with several air strikes and artillery shells, resulting in deaths of 23 civilians, including children”.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, “Ibrahim Adel Al Shehabi, a dentist, died along with his children in Der’ Al Furat forces artillery (supported by Turkish forces) shells fired on Al Bab city.”
They also reported the death of three civilians from the same family including a woman.
The Syrian Observatory also attributed the incident to Turkey, reporting that “a massacre was carried out by the Turkish forces, it is not the first one, and may not be the last, but it is a ring in a long series of massacres committed in al-Bab city. This time the victims of the massacre were 10 civilians from two families. They are a doctor and two of his sons under the age of 18, in addition to three men and three women and a child under the age of 18 from the same family. All of them were killed in the continuous Turkish artillery shelling and aerial bombardment on al-Bab city”.
Syria News Desk said that 23 or 25 civilians died from Turkish shelling.
France 24 wrote that 34 civilians were killed, 17 of them children.
Hara FM quoted the ISIS propaganda outlet Al A’amaq who gave the highest death toll at 50.
Al Jazeera did not mention civilian harm but said 77 targets in Al Bab were hit by the Turkish forces.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (3)
Family members (10)
Family members (3)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Al-Bab (الباب), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.371972, 37.5179666. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (14) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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'Photos of the city # of al bab of the eastern end of the mountain shows clear smoke poles in the city because of the clashes and shelling currently underway, and there is no truth to the news that the city is liberated or free of civilians.' (via Al bab city and its neighbourhood coordination)
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'Photos of the city # of al bab of the eastern end of the mountain shows clear smoke poles in the city because of the clashes and shelling currently underway, and there is no truth to the news that the city is liberated or free of civilians.' (via Al bab city and its neighbourhood coordination)
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 16th-17th, the Coalition reported: “Near Al Bab, one strike destroyed a decoy tactical vehicle.”