Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In a major incident, up to 24 civilians reportedly died when an aircraft allegedly struck a vehicle just outside Al bu Rashed. Most of those killed were said to be children.
All source blamed the Coalition, except one, which said that this was the work of Russia.
Step News initially reported that the vehicle was IS – suggesting a targeted strike. But it later said “the international coalition committed a massacre last night in targeting cars carrying IDPs from the eastern Raqqa countryside near Mattab Al Bu Rashed killing 18 people most of whom are children.” All other reports also said that civilians only were killed.
The Syrian Observatory reported a slightly lower toll, noting that it “learned that 14 citizens at least were killed by airstrikes of warplanes believed to belong to the International Coalition. They targeted places in al-Matab town in the eastern countryside of al-Raqqah and west of al-Jazrah town at the northern banks of Euphrates River, and within the casualties there are 6 children under the age of 18 and 4 citizen women, and most of the casualties are from the same family, and the death toll is expected to rise because there are some people in critical situation.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll as high as 23 including six children and six women. It also pointed towards the Coalition. A further report by SO4HR put the non-combatant death toll at 24. It said that six members of IS were also killed.
However, Syria News Desk blamed Russia. The source reported: “Activist Mohamed Osman from the countryside of Raqqa told Syria News Sesk that the Russian aviation bombed cars of civilians, mostly families, fleeing from the city of Maskana, who were in the village of Al Bur Rashed on the Raqqa-Aleppo Road, west of Al Tabaqa. Osman added that the raids caused the burning of four civilian carrying displaced people and the complete destruction of two houses”. It put the death toll at 18 displaced people plus 20 more wounded.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (1)
Family members (1)
Family members (1)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Albu Rashed (البوراشد), for which the generic coordinates are: 35.801111, 39.672222. 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 (2) [ collapse]
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Mahmoud Adnan al Suleiman (via Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently)
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Ahmad Omar al Dahash (via RBSS)
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 and strike video it was assessed that there is insufficient evidence to find civilians were harmed in this strike.
Original strike reports
For March 7th-8th the Coalition stated: “Near Ar Raqqah, four strikes destroyed three fighting positions, two tunnels, a vehicle repair facility, and a tactical vehicle.”