Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between five and nine civilians including three chilren died in an alleged Coalition airstrike on Al Sahamiya village, Raqqa, according to local sources.
Baladi, Euphrates Post, the Shaam News Network and Step News Agency all blamed the Coalition.
Raqqa is being Slaughtered Silently – whICH also attributed the incident to the Coalition – reported “that an entire family were martyred after a poultry farm in the village of Al Sahamiya was bombed in the eastern Raqqa countryside – and they are: Hamadi Saleh al Baladiya, his wife, his children, the mother of his wife, her two brothers and her sister”.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said that at least five non-combatants – including three children and one woman – from the same family died in a Coalition strike.
Smart put the death toll higher, at nine, with eight more wounded – though they didn’t identify the culprit.
Likewise, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights didn’t identify the warplanes responsible, but reported that five died including two children and a woman in raids.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (4)
Summary
Sources (19) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al Sahamiya (السحامية), for which the generic coordinates are: 36.023470, 39.738922. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
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 20th-21st, the Coalition reported: “Near Ar Raqqah, seven strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed three fighting positions, a VBIED, a garage, an IED and a weapons facility; and damaged a bridge.”